


Frozen Feelings

by PatBRR



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alcohol, Bathroom Sex, Birthday Party, Brutasha Also Didn't Happen, Double Penetration, Edited on 090717, Explicit Language, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Heterosexual Bucky Barnes, Heterosexual Steve Rogers, Loss of Virginity, Masturbation, Mutual Masturbation, Night Terrors, Nudity, Oral Sex, Past Relationship(s), Polyamorous Character, Possible Polyamory, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Recovered Memories, Romance, Rough Sex, Sexual Tension, Staron Kiss Never Happened
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-02
Updated: 2016-11-04
Packaged: 2018-08-19 01:34:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8184008
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PatBRR/pseuds/PatBRR
Summary: One year after the battle between Team Iron Man and Team Captain America, Steve and the rest of the group are hidden in a secretive residence located in the middle of the extensive jungle of Wakanda, under the security of the Black Panther, King T'Challa. The blond, even if surrounded by a good amount of his comrades, still feels the absence of Bucky, his best friend, who remains sleeping in a cryo chamber. But he isn't the only one who continues to truly love Barnes no matter how many years had passed. However, great news approach them two months before Rogers' 99th birthday. Great news that even might create a big problem when feelings decide to get involved and mixed around with memories.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: My native language is not English, so I'm sorry about any grammar/vocabulary errors that might show up during your reading.

“Here, again?”

Steve didn’t even waste time turning around once he captured the sound of such familiar and velvet tone of voice, some meters behind his figure.

“I could say the same about you, Nat. What are you doing here again?”

A brief duration of silence arrived between them in that huge advanced laboratory room, filled with a too bright white light illuminating every single corner of it and every single scientific instrument and machines placed in there. Steve could be found once more standing tense and solid right across Bucky’s cryostasis chamber; only some mere inches apart from the frozen glass where he could spot a glimpse of his sleeping best friend’s visage.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

A year had already passed since the whole drama landed among the Avengers team; where a part of them decided to sign the Sokovia Accords, ending up fighting side by side with Tony, whilst the rest of them – those who didn’t follow the Government’s plans – fought with Steve. Those who did stand with him and aided him in finding Zemo so Bucky could get free from the accusations he was being target at, where now criminals, wanted and searched (especially after the blond hero rescued some of them from the Raft).

Their new hideout was in the middle of the extensive Wakanda Jungle, where the (now) King T'Challa secretively received them as guests, in a manner to prevent them all from the capture of the Government and where Bucky could keep safe from the outside world and even his own triggering mind.

Sam, Clint, Wanda and Scott arrived there upon the rescue mission, planned and carried by Steve, whilst his best friend recovered in a specialized medical clinic from all the serious injuries occurred during the battle against the Iron Man, when this one discovered the tragic truth about his parents’ death, committed by the brainwashed and assassin Winter Soldier in 1991.

However, the number of the refugees changed during that long and somewhat pacific year.

After only three months of his arrival, Clint decided that it was time to leave them and return to his family. T’Challa offered, once more, his secretive residence so he and his wife and kids could live in peace and safety among the rest of the Avengers, but Barton politely declined such proposal. Not that he didn’t desire the company of his comrades and even friends, but as he had said: ‘My family will only be in peace when away from all this war, where they can grow up as normal kids, instead of being surrounded by weapons and security guards’. And the group understood his reasons and didn’t oppose to his departure. He didn’t even reveal where he was going to stay but assured all of them that he had already taken care of arranging a new home in a completely different place, where they couldn’t be found. By anyone.

Obviously that such arrangement – even if accepted – was somewhat bittersweet. Especially for Wanda.

The poor girl had already lost everyone she loved; her parents, her twin brother, Vision and now Clint whom she looked up as almost an adoptive father after his encouraging words inside that building in Sokovia, when fighting Ultron and his robotic army. The company of the other three men in her group was truly pleasant – even more with Steve in there always taking good care of her and always worried about her happiness – but without Clint; without his whole supportive father figure and parental tenderness, things seemed a bit darker. But she knew she had to be strong and continue her life, with the thought that one day everything would be the same as in the past, where all of the Avengers could cohabit in harmony.

Nonetheless, Wanda was not the only one awfully missing the archer’s presence among them.

Scott was new in the ‘squad’, but during the short period of time, he interacted with Barton, both of them created a great complicity that no one else could understand. The bond existed between the both men occurred due to their children. Lang didn’t have a huge family like Clint did, but he had a little girl named Cassandra – or Cassie as he sweetly called her. In those long three months apart from their kids, when the sorrow of missing them reached the two men, they would approach one and other so they could share stories involving their families, and even though it was not the same, Scott and Clint could always found each other smiling and laughing with the bright memories. Those little pieces of heaven were precious for their sanity and for the good state of their hearts, so they could carry on with their new lives as fugitives.

Yet, Barton’s kids needed him way more than Cassie needed her father. And Lang knew it. Besides of being only one child instead of three like the archer had, Cassandra had the help of her mother and step-father whilst Cooper, Lila and the little Nathaniel only had their mother Laura to help them grow up and being safe – something that Scott didn’t need to worry since he knew his lovely ‘Peanut’ was in good hands where she was. So obviously he didn’t oppose to Clint’s departure, but without him, those small pieces of heaven could no longer be reached; even if Steve or Sam, or even Wanda tried to replace him in that category, because… they simply didn’t understand what was being a parent and loving their children – which was normal due to the lack of sons or daughters in the trio’s lives.

Another three months had passed since the day Clint left the secure residence located in the middle of the jungle when another member was added to their group.

In a hot but rainy night of November, Steve woke up startled in his bedroom upon sensing strange movements around there. His first instinctive motion was to leave the bed, and stand firm on the floor, ready to combat whoever didn’t have the permission to be in his private quarters; but instead of any sort of punches or shots, he got received with a brief low velvet laughter right across the room.

Natasha was placed in a chair next to the window, watching his soldier attitude and getting amused at how he was so prepared to fight her, that he didn’t even remember that he had been sleeping completely nude; which ended up by giving her a full view of his muscular long body and his golden skin – not to mention the well served masculine organ hanging between his toned thighs.

“Natasha? What... What are you doing here?” The (no longer) Captain America asked the woman with large shocked orbs and furrowed confused eyebrows.

“Do you really want to start a conversation when being completely naked in front of me, Rogers?”

Another velvet laughter escaped past her cherry plump lips, this time in a louder volume, when she spotted the darker skin tone appearing across the man’s facial traces, once this one realized of his particular situation and quickly tried to cover himself with a pillow before started looking around for some proper piece of attire.

“Why do you keep doing this to me?” Steve finally spoke, upon only dressing on some pajamas pants to cover his intimate area – not even bothering with his nude torso, since the hot weather was too much to even wear a lot of clothes in private – and sat down on the edge of his bed to stand right in front of Natasha’s sight.

“Do what?”

“Putting me on, extremely, embarrassing situations.”

“I’m sorry, but you were the one doing that to yourself.” Natasha replied with another joyful sound slipping past her set of lips “I didn’t steal your clothes or demand you to stay naked right in front of me.”

“Yes, true. But you were the one sneaking into my bedroom with no permission.”

“If you weren’t so paranoid about your security, you’d have remembered to put at least some boxers on, before facing me.” And with that valid argument and her somewhat cocky smirk drawn across her mouth, Natasha left Steve speechless “What if instead of me, it was Wanda who had come into your encounter? You’d have shocked the poor girl.”

Now, being already much closer to her than he had previously been, the Black Widow could spot the unusual crimson tint spreading over his cheeks once again in that night. She knew very well that Steve had the knowledge of what she was referring to when said Wanda would be shocked to see him completely bare. Even Natasha herself was – though she masked it too damn well.

The redhead had already spotted him shirtless a few times in the past, during those more than four years of knowing and working together. Yet, it was indeed her first time having an almost perfect view of his manhood. And it surprised her. She was obviously no virgin, and due to her past in Red Room and KGB, she had already seen a good amount of naked men. But, probably, because she didn’t have any sort of sexual activity in the past year, Steve’s seemed bigger and thicker than what she was accustomed to. Such intimate view had even sent a shiver down her spine and an itch down right below her abdomen, but she obviously was not going to expose it out nor even dare to reveal it towards him. The blond was one of her biggest allies, and she personally considered him a friend – even a good friend. Natasha couldn’t lose it all just because of a mere rush of lust had invaded her ignored and craving body. 

“What are you doing here, Nat?” The wanted and searched man finally repeated his previous question, bringing the woman back to that moment, instead of her own mind.

“I think I got sick of hiding while I ran away.” She began with no smile and with a more serious tone of speech “But, I’ve got even sicker of being alone. After all those years with you guys, I might have gotten used to being surrounded by allies–“

“ –Friends.” Steve interrupted her just to correct her usual mistake.

“…By friends, yes.” A small smile appeared on her lips, as she nodded once, understanding her error after all the time she spent trying to memorize that people – aside Clint – could be more than some allies “But as I was saying, after only two months of being by myself, I tried to contact Clint to know where you all were, but it was impossible. So, instead, I contacted Laura Barton to know some news and found out she also didn’t know where any of you were. So I ended up staying with her and the kids for awhile until Clint showed up.”

“Wait, are you saying you know where Clint’s new location is?”

“Of course I do, Steve. I even helped him arranging everything when he was about to leave the retirement to join forces by your side with the others.” Natasha explained, quite amused at how he could underestimate the depth of her and Clint’s friendship.

“You knew about it all that time and didn’t try to stop him?” The man questioned her completely shocked at the sudden revelation – not at once mentioned by the archer, nor even after Steve contacted him to be part of his team.

“Seriously Rogers, sometimes I wonder if it’s a privilege or an offense calling you friend.” The Black Widow shook her head in a brief instant, whilst remained with her green hues fixed on his blue sky ones at the same time an amusing smirk bloomed on her visage “I know I was not on your side during the battle, but who do you think informed Clint about what you had been doing and what you were about to do? When you called him, he already knew about everything and was already preparing everything to fight side by side with you.”

Natasha took a pause in her speech to stand up and step closer to Steve on the bed. Ending up by settling her down next to him onto the edge of the mattress, she stared into his eyes with a more serious attitude, trying hard to expose the maximum she could about her honest and truly loyal feelings towards him.

“I had to make sure you wouldn’t get hurt, and that’s why I tried to stop your plans so badly. But I also knew how fixed you get when you put something in your head, and that’s why I had to make sure someone would watch for you when I couldn’t.” She explained with a brief side smile when her gaze landed for a single second on the floor “I told you I owe you.”

“And I told you it was okay. But you still saved my life.” Steve said in a low and soft tone, smiling and looking at the redhead by his side with all the tenderness in the world “You really are a stubborn woman, Romanoff.”

Almost as an instinctive action, the soldier leaned forth and embraced the spy’s body with his long and muscular arms, holding her firmly but in a gentle manner against his chest. In that instant, he didn’t even care what she was probably thinking about his sudden physical exposition over her – since it was quite rare between them when not in battle. The truth is that he missed her way too much during those six months apart, and considering her such close friend as he did, made Steve not even thinking too much about the whole situation occurring right there in the middle of his room.

Notwithstanding, if Natasha was uncomfortable with their proximity, she didn’t reveal it. In fact, she even encouraged it by laying her cheek on his broad shoulder when her arms finally involved the man by his waist area.

“I missed you, Steve.”

“I missed you too, Nat.”

They spent the rest of the night talking about everything happening in their lives during the time they got separated due his hiding in Wakanda and her own run away from the Government, after violating the Sokovia Accords that she had signed, when she deliberately helped the Captain America and the Winter Soldier escape from the Black Panther. Natasha explained to him how she had lived with Laura Barton and the kids for only three weeks until Clint showed up for the bliss of everyone – especially of his children. Then she spent the next three months living with all of them, but in the middle of that space of time, she started feeling like she didn’t belong there. Obviously that she was very aware she was always welcomed in their place and that they enjoyed her company, yet, she felt like an intruder. Clint and the rest needed their time alone as a real family – even if she herself knew she also was part of it. But her mind and heart were in Wakanda, where she truly sensed she was needed.

Thus, after those three months, Clint helped her contacting the King T’Challa and upon explaining her circumstances and pleading him to inform her about their correct location (so she could join them) he accepted. And there she was where she truly belonged; next to Steve, Sam and Wanda.

The next day when they approached the common room where the rest of the Avengers gathered around to socialize, the ex-Captain America brought the Black Widow with him so she could finally see her allies and officially get introduced to Scott Lang – whom immediately exploded of content when the redhead gave him a special message from Clint.

Afterward, upon Natasha’s arrival, they could only see the months slip by, one by one, until a year of being hidden in Wakanda had passed.

Nothing particularly had changed. The Government continued searching for all of them – even if not so overly as when the beginning of their rupture. They also still had no news about their previous team members; the only fact they were known about is that due Rhodes’ injuries in the last battle, Tony had been so busy helping his best friend to recover, that he didn’t belong to the people trying to find the fugitives’ true location. Some said that once James was completely recovered, the Iron Man would no longer cease to join forces with whoever was looking for them. But Steve didn’t believe it. Even if Rhodes’ state was an excuse for Tony not helping the capture of his ex-comrades, the blond man kept insisting that no matter what, Stark was not going to hunt them down. He couldn’t explain it, but a part of him truly didn’t believe the billionaire wanted them all in that underwater prison because of him again.

So they remained quiet in secret, living in the middle of Wakanda’s jungle, still waiting to get their freedom back or for some news involving the whole process going on about Bucky’s triggering and dangerous brain.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

“I was looking for you, and I couldn’t find you anywhere; so I decided to check for you in here.” Natasha softly replied, taking some steps further and placing herself next to Steve, who still remained staring at the sleeping frozen face of his best friend “And I guess I was right.”

“What about the other times when I’m the one finding you in this same exact room?” He threw her such query, at the same second he finally exchanged his gaze to land it on her; whom instead of looking over at him, was also staring at the glass of the chamber.

Since the day he lost his best friend again for the ice, Steve would found himself coming to that place and watch his long term friend sleeping. He had no idea why he did it so frequently but pointed out at the fact that he probably missed Bucky way too much to leave him for a second. Or maybe because sometimes he wanted to be in peace, and that zone seemed the only one where he could truly find it. Or even maybe because deep down inside of him, he feared the possibility of having the Winter Soldier waking up Buck in the middle of his peaceful sleep just to turn his life into a confusing and living hell.

However, after only some mere weeks of Natasha’s arrival, she started coming into Steve’s encounter in that laboratory, where they would end up talking for hours while looking at the frozen man, or simply stay in a quiet silence. Yet, what surprised him, was when he began frequently finding her already there alone, watching Bucky with an expression in her eyes that Steve had never seen before from her part. And he didn’t know why. Every time he touched in such subject, Natasha would do what she does best: dodge it. So, right in that moment, he pressed the topic once more, craving for some knowledge about her curious and odd actions.

“Natasha?” He tried to call her attention when she didn’t reply right away.

“I was looking for you. Everyone is busy with something and I didn’t particularly want to be alone. ” The redhead responded a second after hearing his voice; once again avoiding the topic by pretending she didn’t listen or remember his previous query.

“You are doing it again…” Steve mumbled out in a long frustrated sigh as he lowered his head to then fix it again towards the image of Bucky behind the glass.

“What?”

“Not answering me when I ask you the reason for you coming here. And don’t tell me again that’s because of me.”

“But it is.” She lied, exchanging the direction of her attention to land it over Steve’s shaved face “When I come here, I just do it because I’m looking for you or because I know you will appear soon or later.”

“Don’t, just don’t do it, Natasha.” The male spoke with a serious voice, exposing out a tensing jaw line when his gaze dropped again into the woman’s, showing her how he didn’t believe in a single word she was telling him “I hate when you lie to me. I thought I asked you to be always sincere with me.”

“Sometimes the truth is not the best option, Rogers.” The spy said in a calm and low level of voice, exposing no emotion through her facial traces nor even in her green big eyes.

“Lying is not one either.”

“That’s right.” She firmly said with a single nod “And that’s why I don’t do it.”

“But you also don’t tell me the truth.” He retorted, turning his frontal side towards her direction whilst he folded his muscular arms across his chest “And I just wished to know why.”

“You will know someday. But not right now.” She released a faint sigh, slowly getting tired of their little discussion and exposing it by ignoring his sight and shifting her vision towards the sleeping man in the cryochamber “And don’t worry Steve. I have no intention to cause him any harm. I know how much he means to you.”

And Natasha did; very well indeed. Probably not because of the same reasons as he possibly had, but with others of her personal own.

Steve didn’t insist anymore. He simply let the silence establish between them whilst he stared at the woman, trying to analyze every single feature of her gorgeous visage in an attempt to figure out the puzzle by himself. It was not an easy one; Natasha had always been a complex creature since the first day he met her. Only he knew how difficult the task to burn down some of her walls was, but along those years, the blond had his own personal victories over her – and that’s why he considered their friendship from being one of the strongest among their group.

Yet, while he watched her watching Bucky, something tickled his mind. Something he quite didn’t understand and that’s why he didn’t push it so far. If Natasha needed her time to explain her own private reasons, he would give her that; no matter the tremendous amount of curiosity and confusion living in his interior.

On the other hand, the spy knew she couldn’t keep her secret for too long anymore. Steve had the right to know what had occurred in her life in the past. Past this one that involved Bucky and the bond they created when she was still being trained in the Red Room and he was one of her mentors.

Nevertheless, a lot of things had happened since then – one of them being Barnes completely unaware of her existence and therefore the link connecting them. Natasha could swear she had seen a glimpse of realization in his crystal blue eyes when they fought against each other the last time his mind was triggered by Zemo. But probably was only her own imagination playing tricks with her soul. Afterward, when they faced one and other at the airport, when the redhead aided the two buddies running away from the Black Panther, he had stared at her with no gleam in his orbs that could warn her that he, in fact, had remembered her. So the woman wasn’t completely certain that bringing such subject of her past into the middle of them was the brightest idea she ever had.

Bucky had already a lot of things to figure out in his brain about the pre-Hydra capture era of time – plus the whole problem about his unsafe mind. He didn’t need another issue falling over him and pressing him to remember more and more things; where some of those were not even pretty at all.

“Cap?” a familiar voice interrupted their both own running thoughts, making the pair turn their attention backward.

Sam could be seen near the laboratory’s entrance; leaned against the door’s jamb with his arms crossed over his toned chest whilst looking at Steve and Natasha next to Barnes’ frozen chamber.

“Sam, how many times do I need to tell you to stop calling me that? I’m no longer the Captain America.”

“Force of habit.” The ex-pararescueman said in the calmest manner possible, shrugging his shoulders at the blond male’s direction “T’Challa wants to talk to you, man. And I think you should come too, Widow.”

Steve and Natasha exchanged a quick glance at each other, with their eyebrows furrowed in pure curiosity.

“Did he say anything about the reason of calling Steve?” This time was the redhead pronouncing herself in a query, throwing her attention towards the man still placed on the same spot by the door.

“Not too much – you guys should know by now that the King is not a very talkative dude when it comes to serious stuff.” Sam shook his head in faint gesture and slightly shrugging his shoulders once more as he answered to Natasha’s question before his vision shifted towards the muscular tall man in the room “But he mentioned your buddy, Steve. He mentioned Bucky.”


	2. Bucky's Awakening

The twilight painted the skies when the sun finally decided to take its rest so the moon and the stars could replace it with their own sparkling illumination. At that same instant, the group of fugitive superheroes gathered around the enormous common room in Wakanda’s fortress, waiting in a mix of patience and anxiety for the King’s arrival.

They were all placed around in a malformed semi-sphere, settled down between a long ‘L’ shape sofa and a single one near the other.

Steve – by Natasha’s proposal – was the one occupying the one seat couch, which ended up being a great idea. He was trapped between a mess of eagerness and tension, what could be very well noticed by his unstopping body language. Unlike the others, he couldn’t remain in the same position for more than two minutes. Or he was with his whole figure leaned backwards, rested against the sofa’s backrest; legs crossed over one and other in a masculine pose and exposed muscular arms laid over the furniture’s armrest; or he was with his toned thighs wide apart from each other; body leaned forth with planted elbows over his knees and the nozzle zone hidden behind his intertwined long fingers.

Sam and Scott were calmed, sitting down side by side on the long sofa, closer to Steve’s unquiet persona, which at the beginning was really annoying the two men, but after quite awhile, they decided to ignore the leader of the group so they could remain in peace.

Wanda was placed alone on the horizontal side of the ‘L’ couch, right in front of Steve’s vision, but like the man, she didn’t pay attention to what was across her. Instead, the youngest of the group was lost in her own thoughts; with immovable limbs and a blank stare fixed on the carpet floor underneath the group’s feet. If Vision was there, he would probably be already reading the amount of thoughts invading her brain in that moment and understand the reason behind that meeting.

Yes, the Scarlet Witch knew what the King wanted to inform them so badly. It was, somehow, her fault – or more precisely her powers. It wasn’t an awful thing (not even close). It had been a great idea from T’Challa’s part, but Wanda wasn’t so certain if she was capable of such task. The last thing she desired was to disappoint her teammates. Especially Steve.

And talking about the blond, there was indeed someone in that room that started losing her capacity to stay calm.

Natasha was settled down on the armrest of the sofa, right next to Wanda’s spot, what ended up by allowing her to have a perfect detailed view from Steve’s part. He was so damn unstable on his seat that it started messing with her nerves. Obviously, she understood the reason behind his own anxiety; only by simply pronouncing the name ‘Bucky’ was already a rush of emotions through him. Yet, watching him in that state left her just like him or worse – even though not letting it slip so easily behind her emotionless mask. And she knew she had to do something before losing her mind.

“Can you please be quiet, Rogers? Just looking at you gives me a headache.” She asked him with her usual firm and low tone of speech while folding her arms below her pair of breasts.

“Why is he taking so long?” A frustrated sigh slid through Steve’s lips at the same instant he gave up on being placed down and raised his whole figure, stepping then closer to the wall made of glass, leaning in and looking outside at the, now, dark illuminated jungle.

“Calm down, man. The last time I saw him he was discussing something with the Security Chief. Maybe it took his time.” This time was Sam’s time to answer, slightly turning his body backward so he could land his sight on the large rear zone of his friend “Besides, you were the one running to here; even when I told you to relax and take your time.”

“And that was sort part of your fault, Sam.” Natasha spoke, before even letting Steve think about a reply to give to the Falcon “You were the one mentioning Barnes. You should know by now how he reacts to his name.”

“It’s Bucky. What do you want me to do?”

“What about breath, be calm and ratiocinate for once when someone says his name? You don’t even know if what T’Challa has to say is important or not.”

“He wouldn’t call us all if it wasn’t.” Steve retorted, slowly spinning on his spot so he could lock his eyes into Natasha’s whilst they spoke.

“No, Steve. He just called you.”

“Yeah, man. We are just here to give you some support.” Scott added to the conversation, finally opening his mouth during the whole time in that room.

“We know how much that hobo means to you.” Sam said, with a little smirk on his lips, amused at how he could pick on Bucky by calling him names, even when he was having his frozen sleep.

Steve parted his lips to talk but decided to shut them down, to simply catch his friends’ views. Sam and Scott smiled at him, giving him support in the silence by just the manner their eyes talked to him. Wanda also smiled, even if more gently than the others. She didn’t pronounce any word but Steve could sense how she agreed with the two men. However, when his gaze landed on Natasha, he spotted how her brows here furrowed above her emerald hues in a concerned expression – and once again he couldn’t unite the pieces of her complex puzzle.

However, their silencing moment got interrupted when they all noticed the sound of formal men shoes hitting the floor at each step.

Five heads quickly turned at the direction of the room’s entrance, where already in there was the King, dressed up in a casual black t-shirt with a ‘V’ collar and a pair of gray trousers that almost seemed ready to rip off due to his well built up muscles in his bottom limbs.

Regaining all of their strengths and breath after a long time of anticipation, waiting for T’Challa to approach their circle, the five people stood up in an ease motion to greet the royal presence in there among them.

“Your highness.” Steve was the first to direct himself towards the man, whilst also stepped closer to his previous spot near the single couch seat “May I ask why the sudden call?”

“I’m not particularly certain about what Mr. Wilson told you already, but I might have good news, Captain.” The King paused on his speech to spread a short but genuine smile across his plump lips “I think we’ve finally found the hope your friend needed to have a normal life again.”

Steve’s heart almost dropped at such sentence. In that instant, nor even the ‘Captain’ name bothered him as it usually did – even though he would never express it in front of Wakanda’s King. Right there, the only important thing was Bucky and the information about to be known.

“May I ask what sort of hope is that?” For the astonishment of everyone in that place, the one who made such query was Natasha, who remained still in her spot, with an emotionless visage.

“Miss Maximoff…” T’Challa called the girl’s attention, by directing his vision over her in the middle of the people.

Wanda, understanding what he meant, gave a faint almost unseen nod before turning towards Steve, since he was probably the one more eager to know what was going on.

“As you guys know, I’ve been training my skills since we left the Raft.” She started with her smooth tone of voice, loud enough to everyone capture each single word in her accented foreigner English “Vision was my biggest help when practicing, so this task was harder without him around to aid me out. Yet, I made some improvements.”

“Great improvements.” Added the royal member, making a soft crimson tint appear across Wanda’s porcelain cheek, due to the pleasant compliment threw at her from his part.

“Yes, great improvements that might help Bucky.” She continued, taking a breath in and locking her tender eyes into Natasha’s “Some weeks ago, I was called by the King T’Challa to help the Security Chief. They asked me to penetrate a criminal’s mind and discover some information he was hiding from them, about his gang trafficking Vibranium out of Wakanda. But I did more than that…” She halted her speech to exchange her sight towards Steve “In the middle of the process, I ended up digging more than I should and found out the subject had suffered a car accident in the past, which made his brain get damaged and forget everything until then. But in my exploration, I accidentally brought all the erased memories back to him.”

“What does that mean?” Scott curiously asked.

“It means she can bring all of Barnes’ memories back to him, without forcing him to live in the nightmare of only remembering pieces.” Once more in that meeting, Natasha left everyone speechless with her unexpected sentences.

“Yes. But maybe even more than that.” The youngest tugged a chocolate lock of her hair behind her ear and then proceeded to explain “Due to my accident that happened to be a great new achievement of my powers; the Security Chief kept the criminal arrested so I could… Practice with him; make experiments. And after all these weeks, I can not only bring erased memories back, but I can also hide others. Not fully destroy, but hide them deep into the person’s subconscious.”

The new information dropped in the middle of the group like a bomb filled with hope; a fresh breeze sliding into their lives again – especially Steve’s.

“That’s awesome and stuff, but I thought Barnes’ problem was not recovering his memory but the triggering button living inside his head.” Scott commented in a very accurate manner since it was indeed the most important issue needed to be dealt before even planning to wake Bucky up from his cryo-sleep.

“That’s correct Mr. Lang.” T’Challa said, letting the turn of the conversation focus on him with his firm figure and voice “But we also want to try and see if such issue can be alleviated with the whole process of hiding the memories he has, involving this triggering point of his life as the Winter Soldier. And besides, Miss Maximoff’s powers are growing more and more every day. Maybe if she starts working with Captain’s friend, she might get able to turn off the so-called ‘button’.”

And for the first time in 12 months, Steve’s heart was filled with an enormous felicity, awash with the bright light of hoping that, very soon, Bucky could be with him again and they could be part of each other’s lives like they once did as kids.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Shutting off the cryo chamber and waking Bucky up from his frozen sleep, was probably one of the hardest things during the initial part of their plan to bring his life back.

In the morning such procedure occurred, the ex-assassin was very unstable and almost unstoppable. His mind and body were so accustomed to being awaken in pure brutality and in such painful manner by the Hydra soldiers, that Barnes’ first instinct was to annihilate everyone surrounding him to save himself – since no one in there was programmed to face the danger that he could be transformed into, unlike everyone in the past, who had guns pointed at his head since the instant he opened his eyes to the world.

A good amount of people working in the medical clinic area of Wakanda’s hide out suffered some several injuries produced by his well trained bare limbs – thank god his metallic arm was no longer attached to him, or else instead of injuries, there would be fatalities.

Yet, for the luck of everyone in the laboratory, Steve, Sam, and T’Challa were in the next room watching the whole procedure, ending up by forcing them to invade the local to stop him from hurting more people. It was not an easy task, but the well-combined force of the three men together was enough to hold Bucky down just so he could finally stare at Steve; who began a sequence of appeasing phrases to tranquilize his best friend, enabling him to realize he was no longer in Hydra’s bloody hands, but instead was safe, with his favorite ‘punk’ and the rest of the others, in a secure localization.

This time taken by the blond and the other two men, gave opportunity for T’Challa command a staff member to call Wanda from her private quarters so she could join them and infiltrate herself inside Barnes’ head, just to put him in sleep again and prevent such problematic event from occurring the next time he saw the world.

After only some mere four hours of resting, the ex-assassin woke up again, this time in a private comfortable room, in the company of Steve; who could be found in a chair near his bed, waiting patiently for that moment.

“Steve?” Bucky’s voice was low and somewhat husky when he finally spoke, calling the other’s attention, who was currently drawing in a notebook to pass time.

“Hey, Buck.” For the first time in a very long but long time, Steve spread a wide and bright smile at his best friend’s image, lying in that bed, calmer than before “How are you feeling?”

“Sore. And a bit cold but hot at the same time.”

“Welcome to Wakanda, pal.” Steve joked at the extremely heated weather surrounding them “And try not to move too much. You gave us a lot of trouble when you woke up the first time. I, Sam and T’Challa had to force you to be quiet. But we did it.”

“Are you saying that a cat and a bird almost broke my bones? Because that’s what it feels like.” Bucky also joked in his dark humor, making Steve release an amusing loud laughter before he went in silence again when his best friend hissed with pain “Yup, I’m a pussy. They really broke me.”

“Stop moving Buck, or I’ll call Wanda to put you to sleep again.”

“Even if I didn’t mind to see that kid again, I’m sick of sleeping, thank you.” He sarcastically said, showing off a brief smirk across his lips before his whole expression turned into a more serious one when he stared intensely into Steve’s eyes “You said I gave you a lot of trouble. What happened?”

“Don’t worry about it now.” The blond answered with a light shake of the head, deciding that it was a better idea not worry the other with what had occurred.

“Steve, please. Stop trying to protect me from myself. Tell me what happened. I have the right to know.”

A long sad sigh left the interior of the taller man when he gave up and decided that Bucky was indeed right. He had the right to know. And besides, only a minor damage had been done. No kill was made that time.

So Steve began to explain in the most detailed manner everything that had happened hours ago when he was taken from the cryo chamber; then assured the other man that everyone understood the reason behind his initial reaction and no one cursed him for it.

But, as foreseen, Bucky felt bad about it, apologizing over and over again as guilty consumed him for the thousandth time in his long period of life. Even if his best friend tried to appease him, by ensuring him the medical staff injured had already been seen and was currently recovering very well, the dark haired guy still couldn’t find peace.

However, such topic of conversation brought another one into the middle of them: why had they awakened him from his frozen rest?

Steve, once again, explained everything precisely as he could, but with a more bright and positive aura surrounding him while he talked. Bucky also noticed the sudden exchange in his best friend’s eyes, letting a little smile appear onto his own facial traces.

Obviously that he was glad they had found a way (or were trying) to give him his life back – a safer one, where the concern of fearing himself, around other people, didn’t exist. But, what made him feel indeed lighter, was knowing how happy Steve was with this evolution. The blond had already run a long path so they could both reach peace and normality together, and the fact that it could be possible in a near future was like finally receiving the so craving reward they so badly deserved.

Afterward, when everything was already settled down between them and what was going to happen thenceforth, the two ancient men started a more casual conversation that lasted for hours. Steve revealed every event occurring during that long year apart from Bucky and the rest of the Avengers on Tony’s side. Informed the other a bit about every member living there with them, and for the dark haired man’s surprise, the blond extended the details when it came to the Russian spy. They even started messing around with each other, almost like if those kids from Brooklyn had never grown up and pass by so many traumatized experiences as they did.

“What about that blonde you met on my 20th birthday?” Steve asked, in the middle of their amusing moment of sharing stories about their past.

“Yeah, she was pretty and all, but not really my style. She was too clingy and had an empty head.”

“I bet that if she was a redhead, none of that mattered.”

“You think so?” Bucky shortly laughed with his head slightly canted to the side whilst his brows were raised above his crystal blue eyes.

“Of course I do. You always had a thing for them.”

“Yeah, I think you are right. Those girls really were my type.”

“Already talking about ladies?”

A velvet voice, coming from the room’s entry, interrupted their lively chat; making the two men shift their attention towards whoever had spoken.

Natasha could be found leaning against the door’s jamb with her shoulder, whilst the pair of arms were folded below her breasts zone.

“Nat? What are you doing here?” Steve questioned her with a surprised expression drawn across his features at the same second he stood up from his seat near the bed.

“Your highness apologized for interrupting you boys, but he wants to talk to you, Rogers. I think it’s about _his_ new arm.” And when saying ‘his’, the woman made a gesture with her head, pointing to Bucky’s direction over the mattress.

“True. He mentioned something before I came here.” The blond confirmed the information when a flash of memory hit his head “I’ll be right back, Buck.” He assured the other man, by touching him on his shoulder with a gentle smile.

Then he left his spot, turning around by the bed where Bucky was and directed his destination towards the area where Natasha could still be seen, by the entrance.

“Can you please stay a bit with him? It’s just while I’m gone.” Steve pleaded in a whisper when his face got closer to the woman’s; almost like trying to make Bucky not hear them.

The redhead parted her cherry plump lips, ready to give the man a negative answer, but when she spotted the hoping sparkle in his sky blue eyes, she ended up by sighing in frustration before nodding.

“Thank you. You are wonderful, Nat.” And for her own personal shock – or maybe even Barnes’ – Steve bid his goodbyes to her by leaning forth and planting a tender kiss on her temple before leaving her behind.

_Damn, happiness really leaves people more open to physical contact._

The sudden event was so unexpected that left the poor woman with no reaction, making her stand paralyze to the floor in the same spot, staring at a blank point in the bedroom, until a subtle cough caught her attention.

“Hey.”

Bucky remained to lie down in the same place he previously was when his best friend was next to him, but now, his crystal blue hues were fixed into her emerald ones; and there was no need to deny herself how much it affected her interior. No matter how much she hated those shivers colliding with her body, she simply couldn’t prevent them from appearing. And with him awake, right there with her only, she could sense how her heart decided to skip some beats.

“Hi.” Natasha greeted the man, walking closer to him so she could take the seat that once belonged to Steve, at the same instant she tried everything to put her mask on and hide the brand new emotions.

“Your name is Natasha, right? Steve talked about you.” Bucky started the conversation, somehow trying to erase the awkward atmosphere installed between them.

“Oh, he talks about something that is not you? Impressive.” The woman sarcastically joked, flashing a smug smirk across her set of lips.

“Already sick of hearing my name, hun?” He also played around, releasing a brief chuckle as he continued facing her, without ever breaking eye contact with the redhead.

“We can say so, yes. Didn’t you know you were his favorite topic of conversation?”

“Funny, I could ask you the same thing.”

“What do you mean?” Natasha asked with a pair of furrowed brows, exposing out her confusion.

“We were talking for hours, and he mentioned you; quite a lot to be honest. I had never seen him talking so much about something or someone, since the day he finally joined the army.”

There it was: another piece of information that left her speechless with the amount of shock that hit her. Obviously that it was normal having them talking about her persona due to her strong bond with Steve, but she never thought they did it so much as Bucky insinuated. The woman thought they would spend the time together talking about themselves and things about their past and present lives. Never the idea of being such required topic, by the blond, passed through her mind.

It was unbelievable. And for some unexplained reason, she found herself liking the image of being the center of attention during their chat. It left her oddly warm, with a hint of bliss rolling inside of her – even if she judged herself for it, because, from what the dark haired man had demonstrated already, it seemed like he had no clue of she really was.

“By the way…” Barnes interrupted her thoughts once more during the short space of time they spent together, showing her a pity smile “I’m sorry Steve turned you into my babysitter.”

“It’s alright.” She reassured him, shaking her head in a faint motion and flashing him a little but amiable smirk “It’s only for some minutes. I’m pretty sure he’ll be running back to you when he’s finished with whatever is holding him.”

“I don’t doubt that. But I’m sure you know he will probably keep asking you for that when stuff like this happen again.”

“Probably.” A brief sigh escaped from her mouth as she softly shrugged her shoulders, changing then her position on the chair to rest her stretched legs over the mattress, upon removing her boots and dropping them on the floor, without ever touching the man’s limbs “But at least talking with you is not so bad as talking about you. I think I can handle it.”

“You think?” A low but amused sound escaped through his glued red purplish lips “Is that your way of telling me you don’t go with my face?”

“I don’t properly like you, nor do I dislike you. I simply don’t know you, Barnes.” Which was half-true; Natasha had known him in the past, when he was the Winter Soldier, someone he no longer was, so she couldn’t truly opine about the person he was nowadays.

Bucky didn’t give her an answer upon what she had just commented. The silence installed once more in the room, whilst thoughts invaded his own mind this time. He wanted to badly believe in those words, but a strange sensation collided in his interior.

Steve had told him last year how Natasha had met him as Winter Soldier in one of her previous assignations and how it helped her to fight him three years ago along with Captain America and the Falcon in the bridge, where his real identity was discovered by the blond. Yet, Bucky couldn’t prevent that feeling he got that her knowledge over him was beyond all of it. He couldn’t decently explain it, but her pair of huge emerald eyes were awfully familiar to him and he just didn’t know from where. 

“Maybe you should try to dislike me, then. In that way, Steve might not turn you into my personal babysitter.” The man played around a bit, trying to ignore all of those thoughts still running inside of his brain.

“Maybe you’re right. Care to help me in such task?” Canting her head slightly to the side, Natasha stared at him in complete joy at how entertaining he ended up to be.

 “So… How does it feel like to be Steve Rogers’ girl?” The query came out as a pure joke, lighting more the atmosphere between the pair, which could be visible by the large and amused smile Bucky wore.

“Funny, I could ask you the same thing.” By repeating the same sentence he used on her before, and copying his facial expression, Natasha freed a loud and joyful laughter from the man.  

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

Six weeks had passed since they decided to remove Bucky from the cryostasis chamber and, until then, things had been a complete roller coaster. Some days seemed to be going well and smoothly, but others… A complete disaster.

A surgical procedure had occurred only two days upon Barnes’ recovery from the accident in the laboratory when he finally had woken from his frozen sleep. The mechanical engineers hired in Wakanda had worked hard during that long year to create a new and better robotic arm for him, and with the ex-assassin already ‘back to life’, T’Challa decided it was time to let him regain his lost limb. A team of specialized medical staff performed the difficult procedure for ten straight hours, where they removed the still existent metal on his left shoulder, replacing it with the brand new one.

Bucky’s recent prosthetic arm was, in some parts, similar to his previous one; the same amount of metal layers, in a shiny silver tint; same superior strength and the same capacity to handle hard collisions, like bullets, without any damage made. However, plenty of things were also different; the red star was no longer placed on his left bicep; his bionic limb was way more flexible than before and he could sense tact through his fingertips – even though he still couldn’t have the same sensation when another person touched him.

Due to his inhuman fast healing capacity, only three days were needed to fully rest before he started using his left arm again. First, to learn how to command his own gestures with facility; then to use ordinary and everyday objects without breaking them with his force; and finally, to train his combat and armor skills. For everyone’s surprise, he had reached the full control of his movements by the end of the weekend, only five days upon the surgery.

Although everything was going pretty well for their expectations, it was when Bucky started working with Wanda that everything got complicated.

They would gather together every single afternoon, from 2 pm to 5 pm, for their sessions where the girl would work on the ex- soldier's mind. Initially, her work ended up by being easy; Bucky had already collected a lot of pieces from his past pre-war, so she only had to pull some other memories from his subconscious to let him have a full paint of his childhood and teenage era. Then she started going a bit further to his young adulthood years; which ended up by being the most awkward time they spent together, since (while working in his memory) she also could visualize the same pictures as he did, and in that epoch, a lot of intimate scenes appeared of him with the opposite sex, doing things that should only remain in private.

However, Wanda’s job became more and more difficult when they began to approach the era of his life when he was part of Hydra’s arsenal. She discovered a lot of erased memories, hidden deep into his mind – a lot more than those Bucky thought he had. Millions of them were placed there in secret and she simply couldn’t find the required ones to try and shut down the triggering ‘button’ inside of the man. There was no manner to hide memories already hidden, so she began to bring them all, one by one, so in the end, she could do what she was planning to.

But doing such procedure, brought consequences to Barnes’ life.

Night terrors; terribly real looking nightmares that filled his sleep, turning the pacific moment to rest, into some too painful and too unstable hours in the middle of dawn. He would wake up with his own erratic and uncontrollable movements in bed, along with loud agonizing screams that escaped through his vocal cords, colliding with his ears and awakening him in pure horror. Sometimes, with his eyes already open, Bucky would find himself entering into panic attacks due to the horrifying images still playing in his head. The other few times it didn’t happen, he would examine himself to make sure he was safe and no damage had been made during his sleep, only to find his flesh covered in sweat and his face soaked with salty tears… but no blood.

Upon finding out about these current nightmares and attacks that occurred every single night of his best friend’s life, Steve tried to make Bucky halt his sessions with Wanda, devastatingly worried about his mental state.

The dark haired man seemed weaker, paler and sicker as the days went by, due to the lack of proper sleep, but he didn’t cease the work he had to accomplish until then, with the youngest of the group. He used to argument that if they stopped their sessions now, the nightmares would never come to an end, since the girl’s work was not over and she still hadn’t been able to hide the horrible memories, and once done, everything would be fine – at least he tried to make Steve believe so.

Yet, they also made some sort of progression about such fragile subject when the blond man once decided to spend the night with his best friend. Bucky had awakened Steve (way before this one could wake up) with his screams and unstable body motions and when the ex-Captain America leaned closer to appease the other’s sleep, Barnes woke up and no panic attack appeared. Afterward, they passed an entire hour talking about random things, just so the dark haired guy could have another type of thoughts invading his mind, instead of the destabilizing images of his nightmares.

Thus, a new ritual surged between the two buddies – at least for the initial two weeks. Every night, Steve would sneak into Bucky’s private quarters and crawl into his bed, lying himself down next to the other to sleep until the sound of screams could begin to ring into his ears. He would calmly make the long haired man open his eyes, then after an hour of conversation, they would both go back to sleep. Sometimes this worked perfectly, but other times Steve would not wake up once, but twice or even thrice during a single night. What began to affect the blond’s own health and function state during the daytime.

Noticing such fact, Natasha – and surprisingly Sam – approached Steve to offer their aid by making turns during the week to stay with Bucky, switching with him so the man could have some proper nights of sleep. Even Wanda offered herself, but the request was immediately declined since she also needed to be in a perfect state of mind, to properly fulfill her role in helping Barnes.

At first, the ex-assassin planned to reject the idea; he hated being vulnerable to the point of involving everyone in his tragic ‘schedule’, but he also had observed how Steve’s conditions were getting worse just by wanting him to rest at night, and since the other was so damn stubborn to stop all of it, Bucky ended up by accepting his fate.

What brought them to that specific night; Natasha’s first time switching with Steve.

“Come in.” Bucky’s deep low voice could be heard from the other side of the door when the redhead knocked on it to call his attention.

“Why are you still awake?” The Russian asked him, confused after getting inside; Steve had informed her that he usually would find the other man already asleep when he reached the bedroom.

“If you thought I was, why knocking?”

“I wanted to make sure you were really sleeping or… in an inappropriate situation.”

“I don’t sleep naked like that punk if that’s what you are wondering.”

Natasha almost flushed herself when his words penetrated her ears and she didn’t know if it was the mere idea that he thought she had already shared a bed with Steve to know such fact – which she hasn't – or for the image that appeared in her mind of them two sleeping together, while the other man was in complete bare skin.

“Alright… Let’s go to bed, then.” She pronounced herself towards him, trying to vanish with those thoughts in her head by walking towards the double size mattress where she would spend the night with the man, and settled down “Which side do you prefer?”

“None.” Bucky replied almost too fast in his calm voice, staring at the woman on top of his bed, while he remained on the two seat sofa placed near the window “I’m going to sleep here.”

“Stop bullshitting me, Barnes. You are way too big for that couch.”

It was true. He was indeed way too tall and large to be a little comfortable when sleeping in there. But he had already fixed his mind that he was not going to share a bed with Natasha – especially now that she was right in front of his sight.

Obviously that he had noticed her gorgeous visage and attractive figure; but now, visualizing her in those too mini pajamas shorts and black sportive bra, he was more certain how sharing a bed with her was a dangerous move.

Dressed in such manner, gave him a proper view of her round, full pair of breasts; her smooth shiny pale skin; her flat but firm stomach and worked out legs. The woman was all drawn in sensual curves from head to toe, and even though he probably wasn’t in the right form to perform sexual activities, he was still a human being; a man with urges that needed attention for a long, _long_ time.

But he couldn’t surrender to the walking temptation Natasha was, no matter what he did. He still had no clue of her link with Steve, but he was 100% sure his best friend had feelings towards her – even if he himself didn’t know yet.

“I’ll be fine here.” He assured her with a firm and straight sentence.

“Please, Barnes…” The redhead sighed in pure frustration; the exhaustion was too hard to waste more time talking “Stop acting like a child and come to bed.”

“Just sleep and let me be, Romanoff. You look tired.”

“So do you, but there you are.”

“I’ll be fine.” He assured her once more, trying to put an end to their ridiculous discussion; his mind was fixed.

A couple of minutes went by with them simply staring at each other, one from the bed and the other from the couch, in pure silence, until Natasha decided to open her mouth.

“Are you afraid of me?” The question came out too soon, as she deeply stared into his crystal blue eyes with narrowed orbs, trying to analyze him across the room.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Then why don’t you just sleep with me?”

 _Said the Black Widow to her prey_ , he thought.

With a frustrated low grunt, Bucky finally surrendered himself and stood up on the floor; stepping then closer to the zone she could be currently found. No words were shared between the two, as he lay down by himself on the left side of the mattress, turning around so his back could face her, instead of the frontal side of his figure.

Afterward, Natasha followed his actions; turned off the light of the lamp placed on the bedside table near her area and also lay down on her spot.

On the contrary of the dark haired man, the spy positioned herself in a manner to stare at him from behind. Even with the weight loss, Bucky was still in shape – in better shape than she thought, actually. She mentally traced every single muscle on his back, desperately craving for a single touch against his flesh or even against his new bionic arm.

Her lustful gaze began to slide down over the man’s body until it halted on his well firm ass, covered by the thin black fabric of his boxers. She had to quickly swallow the thick lump appearing in her throat, as she began to salivate like a starving dog; dying to reach his rear and caress it as she had done so many times in the past, during her Red Room days.

Not sensing like she could control herself any longer, the woman turned around over the mattress, switching her gaze towards the nearest wall, where in that position, she began a long process of breath in and breath out, calming every single cell in her body before she could commit a disaster.

Bucky, on his side, was also not as restful as the redhead might have thought – even though her state was worse, due to her very in detail memories of their intimacy together in the past.

Natasha’s perfume was around everywhere in the bedroom, intoxicating him, once the sweet fragrance reached his nostrils. He also could sense her irregular movements in the bed, letting him know she was still not sleeping. The image of her sitting on his mattress with almost no clothes on, covering her flesh, continued to hunt him down while he tried to pass out.

Barnes cursed himself for desiring her in the most carnal way possible when he totally shouldn’t because even though it wasn’t official, he still knew something was going on between her and his best friend.

He had seen it. Every time they were all together, Steve’s eyes seemed to shine more when his gaze landed on her, whilst Natasha’s smile seemed bigger when his voice was heard. They had a powerful bond and chemistry link between them, and no one could deny the obvious.

But he was no blind man. The Russian was an extremely interesting and attractive woman; everyone knew it – and being a redhead just gave her extra points in his favor. So having her now in his bed, almost nude to the tact, with his craving needs screaming for attention, was killing him.

It was indeed difficult; yet, the truth is that both of them ended up by finding sleep, several hours later after their small chat when she entered in there, to spend a night that had barely started.


	3. Double Trouble

A new nightmare had penetrated his peaceful dreams; nothing new until here. Bucky was already accustomed to the disturbing and painful images always crossing his mind during his sleep.

Ordinarily, bloody scenes invaded his nightmares; where he watched himself killing a bunch of innocent people to reach his targets, and finally, also the death of his prey in the most horrifying and inhuman manner possible by his own hands or by Hydra’s.

However, something was oddly different this time; no drop of blood could be visualized; no hunting any sort of bloke; no screams of pain from his victims. Nothing coming from a horror movie. Yet, it still didn’t stop it from being totally out of place.

Surrounded by a dim lighting, a large and long ballet studio filled with mirrors, could be seen in front of his sight. Due to the lack of proper illumination and the view of snow outside the windows, that specific room sent cold chills down his spine, making him sense like the darkness was about to consume him.

But, it was when his gaze landed on the little figure there placed in the middle, that he finally felt the warmth rising in his interior.

A young redhead ballerina was positioned in the center of the studio, moving her petite body in slow and smooth motions along a sinister classic melody blasting in the background. She had pale porcelain skin painted all over her physical traits; hair red as fire tied up on top of her head in a messy bun, letting escape some ringlets, which ended up by gluing to her sweaty nape and facial features; a flat but toned body with no hint of womanly curves, what ended up by giving him an idea that she was not older than 11 years old. Her whole beauty made him look at that little girl as a precious doll, fragile and light as a feather, but her dancing routine with sharp movements along the studio, made her seem lethal as one of his cold weapons.  

For the first time in weeks, Bucky wondered if that strange dream was (along with the others) part of his hidden memories, or if he, simply was finally having a peaceful and almost graceful dream for a change – but he hoped it was the last option, otherwise he would get obsessed to know who that little girl was, for warming a part of him in the middle of the cold darkness of his past.

But then it happened: the redhead ballerina turned her full frontal side towards where he was standing and they finally locked their eyes on each other. His gaze got penetrated in those awfully familiar big emerald hues of hers and for the first time, his brain made the click he needed to figure out who that little girl was…

Natasha Romanoff.

However, before his dream could carry on, giving him more information if it was indeed only a mere dream formed by his head, or if it was, in fact, a lost memory, Bucky woke up in a startled manner with agonizing high pitch screams colliding with his ears.

But they didn’t belong to him.

Fully opening his orbs, the dark haired man turned his body to the direction that horrible sound was coming. Next to him, on the right side of his bed, Natasha was screaming her vocal cords out through her mouth whilst her body squirmed in an unstable manner, leaving her whole flesh covered in sweat.

Initially, Bucky had no reaction. Watching her on her own nightmare, gave him almost a perfect view of himself when in such state, but eventually, not supporting the idea of watching her in the same pain he went through every single night, the man leaned forth and captured her beautiful visage between his rough large palms.

“Romanoff… Romanoff, wake up! C’mon, Natasha!” He said over and over again with his face hovering hers, only some mere inches apart, whilst he caressed her humid cheeks with his thumbs and tried to make her body actions halt.

It took him a pair of fully long two minutes before she could snap her eyes open in a quick motion.

Noticing the manly figure so close to her own, holding her still against the mattress, made Natasha’s instinctive well-trained skills as a spy to react. In the second after she had already interwoven her toned thighs around the man’s torso, fiercely forcing them to switch positions with her strength and flexible moves, making him land on his back whilst she straddled him above his hips area and her pair of fists clenched around his throat, ready to suffocate him.

Bucky’s eyes got wider at the sudden dangerous position she turned them into and at how furtively she had attacked his neck. But he didn’t fight back.

He knew from personal experience how was to wake up with people ready to take him down and how it turned him into a complete beast; he just didn’t believe she could have the same animal inside of her, which made him wonder about all the cruel things she might have suffered in the past.

Yet, as quickly as it started, it also finished.

In one moment, Natasha was ready to tear his throat open, but as the moon’s light snaked through the window of the room, illuminating the man’s face, the redhead could finally catch a glimpse of his crystal blue eyes that used to melt her heart in a beat.

“ _Yasha_ …” She whispered in such low volume that almost sounded like she had done it only to herself, whilst released the grip around his neck without removing the flesh-on-flesh contact of her hands against his skin.

Bucky’s ears caught the word slipping past her cherry lips and even though he couldn’t recognize from where he remembered it, he knew it was Russian by the familiar sensation rushing through him.

“Are you alright?” He asked her in a husky voice due to the strength she had poured on her hands when asphyxiating him.

“I’m… Sorry. I… I didn’t mean to…” She weakly mumbled, still terrified at her own actions, whilst unconsciously caressing his flesh in circles with the pads of her thumbs against the frontal zone of his neck.

“It’s alright. I have nightmares too, remember?”

“Yeah… I guess so.”

Carefully, in the middle of the new silence arriving into the middle of them, Bucky’s hands traveled towards different destinations: his metal hand landed on her hip to support her weight on top of him and not letting her lose balance, while his right palm rested carefully onto one of hers, still around his neck.

Sensing the warmth provided by him on top of her hand, a soft shiver rolled over her spine and before she could even think about her own acts, Natasha slowly began to disconnect her touch around his throat and under his palm, so she could slide her petite ones down over his hairless toned torso, passing from his visible collarbones towards his chest and finally over his drawn abdomen muscles whilst her gaze followed the path done by herself on his body.

If for a moment he minded her business, Bucky didn’t let it out. He merely remained quiet, staring fixedly at her visage through his half-closed eyelids, feeling the tremendous pleasing sensation sent to him by her movements.  Every spot of bare flesh found by her tact slowly began to heat up with the comfortable silent passion burning inside of him.

Natasha continued to study every single feature of him, with no hint of lust getting exposed by her eyes – because what was happening wasn’t indeed a lusty urge from her part. She simply needed to feel him underneath her fingertips to calm her spirit and it surprised her how, after all those years, he still had that power over her.

While the woman lazily drew the traces of his abs with the pads of her fingers, Barnes started exchanging his own attention towards her body, and – for how incredible it might be – he had only spotted now the ugly scars located on her shoulder and near her hip area.

“I remember this…” He unconsciously spoke upon lifting his right hand and traveled it towards her encounter, where he softly touched the bullet old wound on the upper part of her figure before he touched the one downwards “Was this also done by me?”

“None of them were.” She whispered in her velvet typical voice, shaking her head in a brief second when she locked her gaze on his again “The Winter Soldier did it. Not you Barnes.”

“Yeah, but he is part of me…”

No word left her lips. Natasha merely left herself stare at him whilst he caressed the pinkish scar.

It was odd how both of them didn’t move an inch from their intimate position, and instead, remained touching and visualizing every trace of the other’s body, almost like learning them all over again – well, learning for the first time in Bucky’s case. 

Serenity surrounded them in the man’s private quarters and for the first time in a long, long time Natasha felt in peace, knowing she belonged there with him, between his caring touches and tender eyes.

“I dreamed about you. Tonight.” He suddenly confessed, raising his blue hues from her scar towards her green orbs.

“You did? What did you dream about?”

“You, as a little girl, dancing ballet in a creepy studio.”

If in that moment the man wasn’t so busy playing with some locks of her red hair between his fleshy long fingertips, watching how soft it was against his touch, he would have spotted how her eyes turned bigger on her visage.

Natasha’s heart began to hardly pound inside her chest, deafening her.

Was it possible that he just started remembering her?

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The rest of the night had passed almost by unseen.

Upon over an hour of having the redhead straddling him and caressing his smooth flesh, Bucky had found the sleep he so much needed, giving her time to leave him alone. She felt guilty about escaping out of his bedroom in the middle of dawn, afraid that new nightmares had disturbed him while she was gone, but she simply couldn’t remain in there.

Once spotting him peacefully sleeping, the woman surrendered herself at the temptation of also touching his facial features, sensing the rough tact of his stubble against her fingertips, before she shifted her attention towards his mid-long hair, feeling the softness and losing herself on its scent when her head leaned down, sinking her nose on his dark chocolate strands.

But having her lips inches apart from his own, made her dangerously close to lose her mind and fulfill her passionate cravings of tasting his flavor in her mouth. And it was in that instant that she decided to run away.

It was almost lunch time, and she now only had left her personal quarters, after spending the biggest part of her morning trying to rest and erase the memories of their night together, but no success was reached… yet.

Dressed with some black sportive leggings; a gray baggy sleeveless top; some comfortable sneakers and her red hair tied up in a high messy ponytail, the woman directed herself towards the gym where she could waste some of her frustrated energy and probably forget about everything.

Fortunately – or maybe not – once she arrived at the large room, only one person could be seen inside, throwing punch after punch at a punching bag, hanging in the ceiling.

“Still in here, Rogers? What about lunch?” She said in a greeting manner, approaching the blond from behind until she stepped next to him, some meters away to not get hit as well.

“Had a good breakfast.” He began speaking; not ceasing for a second his precise punches against the object “What about you?”

“Not hungry.” She replied with a brief shrug as she folded her arms below her chest “Training seemed a better idea, in fact.”

Steve finally stopped his punches when he threw one with such brutality that he ended up by crashing the bag against the wall across them, before it fell to the floor, completely in pieces.

“You look tired.” He commented upon turning his gaze over her from head to toe, and studied her facial traces in concern “Did he have a lot of nightmares?”

“Just one.” She lied, not having the mere clue about such issue, when in fact it had been her having the nightmares, and Bucky the one who woke her up.

“Really? You look tired as if he had spent the whole night having them.”

“I just couldn’t fall asleep after it. That’s all.” Another shrug was made by the redhead.

“You sure you can train in that state?”

“Don't underestimate me, Rogers. I could still beat your ass when facing death.” She said at the same time a smirk appeared on her cherry plump lips.

“Oh really? Let’s see it, then.” Steve challenged her with an amusing sparkle in his eyes, as he tried to copy her smile by doing a more subtle one.

Natasha didn’t reply, instead, she started stepping away from him, walking towards the fighting ring placed in the center of the training room. With a flexible and almost sensual action, she grabbed the second highest rope to get some support when she lifted her leg to let her foot land on the background of the ring and after that, she bent over, slipping past the second and third rope.

Steve, also followed her steps, but unlike the redhead, the manner he stepped into the area was in a firmer and much more masculine way that she could never copy.

The pair stood high across each other, with only a couple of meters apart, staring into the other’s eyes.

“When you’re ready, Romanoff.”

And before he could even ratiocinate, Natasha was already right in front of him and in a quick and almost unseen motion; her pair of hands grabbed the blond’s wrists, gaining balance to jump on him and capture his neck with her inner thighs before she threw him backwards on the floor in a mere second.

“You okay down there, Rogers?” The woman asked in a pure mock tone, flashing him the biggest of her smirks.

Steve was lying on the floor of the ring with Natasha still straddling his neck; her rear area was comfortably placed on top of his collarbones zone and his wrists pinned down next to her knees. Due to their position, the woman’s covered sex was practically on his face what turned the air thicker to breathe. A light crimson tint also appeared across his cheeks when the inappropriate fantasy of eating her out, just like that, crossed his mind.

“I wasn’t ready.” He finally spoke in a husky pitch, needing to desperately get rid of her.

Hearing such sentence, made a joyful laughter escape past Natasha’s plump petals while she moved away from him, getting on her feet once more, some meters apart from where he was still laying down.

Upon Steve’s recovery, they started their training again – this time with both of them prepared for the other’s attack.

Punches and kicks were thrown at on and other but ended up always missing due to the other’s incredible reflexes to stop it or simply to dodge it. The only move has been made with total success was when Natasha decided to strike him with her killer thighs, every time bringing him down what allowed them to take a pause of two or three minutes since Steve always ended up needing more air into his lungs than when they were simply fighting body-on-body.

Two hours were spent doing this, over and over again. Even though they were already covered in sweat and breathing hard, they still didn’t stop for very personal reasons, but the truth was that: both needed that moment where they could get wild and waste all of their energies.

However, it was in one of Natasha’s repeated dirty moves that everything happened.

As already foreseen from the male’s part when she leaned closer to get a grip on him just to gain balance and jump on his throat with her legs, Steve let her do it, but this time made sure she didn’t hold his wrists. So when they ended up on the floor, with her on top of him once more, the soldier finally caught the chance and with the aid of his hands on hers, he made them switch positions in the fastest of the moves.

Now he was the one holding her down against the floor with his body weight.

Natasha’s legs, to vary, were involved around Rogers’ waist as this one was placed between them, pinning her wrists against the fighting ring background, next to her head’s level.

The pair of emerald eyes widened in a pure jolt, not quite believing how the man had predicted her movements and easily controlled her under his figure. Steve was really fast at learning about combat techniques, and it shouldn’t but it indeed surprised her – especially because he was using his new knowledge against the redhead.

Smirking as he remained with his chest hovering hers, the blond began to visualize her facial features and noticing the hint of shock, he felt full of himself, completely pride at his own actions.

Yet, upon sometime in silence and in that (too nice) position of them, Steve’s side smile started to fade away when he began to pay attention to his state.

His heart was skipping beats at the same instant the air turned too thicker to breathe. His covered crotch was glued to the woman’s core, and due the thinness of the fabric of their clothes, he could somewhat sense the warmness she provided him from the area between her legs; her natural sweet fragrance mixed with the strong scent of sweat invaded his nostrils, leaving him completely insane to take her; her ponytail was a total mess, letting escape some red ringlets along her face and neck, giving her a wild image; and finally, her plump cherry lips were parted, breathing hard as he did, looking almost too tasty to escape.

God, he wanted her. So bad it started hurting.

Steve couldn’t remember the last time he felt that way towards a woman, but now sensing it, he just couldn’t find the self-control he needed to stop himself.

But he was not alone in that roller coaster of emotions. Natasha was also having second thoughts about what she should or not do.

Her half-closed eyelids noticed the manner his blue sky eyes watched her lips, and she knew how to read his expression: he was starting to get aroused. And she couldn’t judge him when she found herself in the same level of excitement.

Having Steve so comfortably placed between her legs, so dangerously connected to her feminine zone, got her an almost perfect sensation of his thick manhood – just not being on perfect point due to their bothersome clothes. His flesh was covered in thin lines of sweat, leaving shiny tracks along their way and Natasha got the sudden urge to run her tongue along them, just to have a mere flavor of him in her mouth. His blond locks were also messy and wet, giving him the look of someone well fucked and she fantasized about being the one riding him till the edge of the climax.

“Steve…” She unconsciously whispered out his name, making it sound almost like a faint moan as she unconsciously bucked up her hips, creating a bigger friction between their centers.

Natasha couldn’t totally realize what was going on with her in that moment, but she blamed her damn hormones; her tired mind; her needy body and the latest events with Bucky.

There was no way to deny that she had always found the blond an extremely attractive man, with a face too handsome to be real; but she had never thought about jumping into his pants. It just seemed awfully wrong due to their great friendship and the fact that he was her first love’s best friend – whom she certainly still maintained strong feelings for.

Yet, as he remained holding her against the floor, between her legs, Natasha just couldn’t think properly and in the end, she gave up and decided to forget everything for a little, surrendering herself into the passion building around them.

Spotting the precise instant the redhead decided to let herself go with the flow of their lust, Steve began to slowly lean his face down, closer and closer to her own. The woman’s warm breath tickled against his slight parted manly lips as he glued their foreheads at first in a light gesture, allowing their noses to nuzzle on each other in an almost tender and slow action. But what indeed turned his body on fire was when he finally sensed the slight brush of his smooth lips against hers for the very first time.

However, their intimate situation got interrupted when their ears caught the sound of the room’s door being opened, followed by masculine voices talking in an animated manner, which made the pair immediately separate from each other to opposite directions – Natasha continued placed on the floor, but this time in a sitting way whilst Steve stood high on his feet with his back slightly against the ropes.

“Did we just… Interrupted something?” Sam asked in a mix of amusement and confusion, pointing at himself and Scott, upon approaching the couple and noticing the dark crimson shade spread across their features.


	4. Remembering a Lover

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Italic words used in this chapter during dialogues were meant to correspond to the use of Russian language between the characters.  
> ( Italic Words = Russian Language )

“So, how are you feeling today?” Wanda asked the man, upon this one stepping into her bedroom, where they usually had their sessions together.

“Alright, I guess. I didn’t have nightmares today.” He replied with a soft speech, walking further into the room so he could lean close to her bed, where the girl was already positioned.

“I already thought so. Your eyes don’t look so tired as the other days.”

It was true. For how surprising it might sound, the dark circles under his orbs weren’t as visible as they used to be, and for a long time, Bucky felt the peak of his energy getting higher.

He had indeed woken up in the middle of his sleep as the rest of his nights, but that time it had been different.

First of all, it wasn’t his nightmares that halted his peaceful moment, but Natasha’s. Second, he didn’t even have a bad dream – an odd one, yes, but not bad. And after the long hour spent with the redhead, simply touching each other with no hint of lust, the man had finally found his desired rest, which ended up to prolong until noon with no more disturbs.

Barnes didn’t even know if he should thank Natasha for her gentle fingers playing around his skin, leaving him so relaxed to the point of passing out on her or for being part of his dreams as a little doll version of herself.

Anyhow, he needed to find her afterward and show her his gratitude.

“Are you ready?” Wanda interrupted his thoughts with her heavy Sokovian accent.

The dark haired man didn’t reply with words, but by a single firm nod of his head before he crawled to the middle of her bed, lying down on his back with his head placed against her pillow, trying to achieve the most comfortable position for himself and also for the girl, while she worked on him.

Spotting him get in position, Wanda then leaned closer to the level of his head, sitting down on the edge of the mattress with her frontal frame turned into his direction, and once she visualized Bucky shutting his eyes down, she also prepared herself.

Raising her arms so her petite palms could hover on the man’s visage, Wanda began to focus all of her powers into her task. Soon some scarlet glowing energy currents mixed with mist-like shapes (much like fire or gas) started floating around Barnes’ head at the same time they penetrated his mind.

His memories rolled in her hands almost like the pages of a book, filled with scenes of a long gone past. Some pages had already been completely read, but others seemed to need a better decode to get a full comprehension of what was in there – and that was the reason behind still finding nothing of that triggering button inside his memory.

In her research, Wanda decided it was time to move on to the next events happening in his life and it was when she finally sank deep, that she found that peculiar private scene.

* * *

Upon a long and harsh day training the girls in the Black Widow Program, the American – or Winter Soldier as they called him in there – could be found inside his private quarters; a small room, covered in thick walls of an aged metal that made the warmth in the world disappear before anyone could even sense it. The place was almost too small to give proper steps around it due to his muscular figure; his single size bed placed near a wall and a little table with a chair only. All of his clothes – which could be count as a complete attire for missions and another casual one for exercise – were placed inside a backpack under his short bed.

The man was shirtless, only wearing some sportive pants after the training and was sitting down on a chair at the table right across him. Settled down over it was various type of tools and supplies for cleaning guns, whilst he worked on his Glock 19 very attentively but performing such task in the easiest manner possible as he was so used to.

However, in the middle of his pacific scene, a light knock on the metal door was heard by him, leaving him immediately on high alert.

It was not habitual having people at 2 am bothering him, and when he was indeed needed at some sort of activity, the sound of the knock would have been much, _much_ louder.

Stepping closer to the entry, in the most careful way so no hint of noise could be heard from his motions, the man brought the gun in his hold near his neck level, ready to point it at whoever’s head was on the other side of his room.

“ _Yasha?_ ” A velvet whisper came from outside when the man placed his left ear against the door so he could try to capture any sort of clue from who was interrupting him in the middle of the night.

And he did.

Recognizing the voice so well as he almost knew himself, the Winter Soldier quickly opened the door and in an almost unseen act, he grabbed the intruder’s arm and pulled her instantly inside, before locking the entry.

“ _What are you doing here, Natalia?_ ” He asked the girl in his almost perfect Russian, if not for the little New York accent – that he didn’t even recognize for being from there.

“ _I missed you, Yasha…_ ” The redhead replied almost in a seductive whisper, leaning closer and closer towards his shirtless torso, never minding his still holding grip around her arm turning tighter at every inch she erased between them.

“ _Are you crazy? What if they found us? What if they found you?!_ ” He inquired in pure rage at her reckless action, which could be visible by the darkening color invading his crystal blue eyes.

“ _I know it’s risky, but I couldn’t stand it anymore._ ” Natalia started, now pretty obviously ignoring his prior statements and exposing out her seduction skills towards him, as she stood on her tip toes to reach his strong neck with her natural rosy lips and deposited soft kisses along his flesh “ _I couldn’t sleep thinking of you._ ”

The Winter Soldier was damn mad at how irresponsible she could be sometimes but…

Sensing her petite hand caressing his hairless rock-hard chest from side to side, slightly brushing against his left little nipple while doing it in such slow movements, plus her petals still connected to his throat, he ended up shutting his eyelids down for a second when a wave of burning passion slid through him.

He hated himself at how infirm he could be towards the girl he loved.

With only 16 years old, Natalia had already an experience of seducing men as a mature woman, in the middle of her life. She knew exactly how to accentuate her voice, to turn it as alluring as possible; she knew exactly how to move her hands and mouth to the point of making a grown ass man shivering like a little kid; and she obviously knew how to provoke just by standing still and letting her body view do the work.

The girl, still far from the woman, had already a pair of enviable curves that could drive any man insane. She had busty and firm breasts on her chest; a slim waist and flat stomach; average to wide hips that continued towards her thick thighs with no gap – which in his point of view, it made her seem even more appealing – and toned legs. The only part of her figure that exposed out her real age, was her young visage, due to her full lips with a pink natural tint; little nose with a slight broad tip that that made her look cuter than she really was and smooth, clean porcelain face.

Yet, what he admired the most about her was her big emerald orbs, above those dark circles of lack of sleep, that even though she was only 16 years old, no sparkle of innocence could be spotted in them. In fact, it was the complete opposite. He was very aware of the reason behind that dark mature gleam rushing through them; which made them similar in a lot of aspects.

Natalia had already witnessed countless of deaths in front of her sight, and even if she hadn’t been the one pulling the trigger on some occasions, she still had to watch it with her attentive eyes. And don’t let him even start with the many times she had been tortured because of her not so ‘correct’ behave or others by simply being a manner of learning her craft.

So being all of that and having all of that, it was only a matter of time before he could fall deeply in love with her.

The American couldn’t even recall when it all started; he had just noticed it when the burning flame of passion had hit him hard in one of their occasions practicing hand on hand combat. He had held her tightly from behind against his frontal side, teaching her how to get free when a man poured his strength over her and sensing how her frame connected with his in such perfect shape, sent millions of little knives through his blood cells.

After that… Only God knew how lucky they had been until now for not being caught in one of their little escapes in a dark corner of the aging manor KGB used for the Black Widow Program.

Yet, they had never tried to occupy one of their quarters because both knew how dangerous it was.

The redhead continued to share her room with some other girls training in the Program – even though their number had decreased along all those years she had been raised there. And the man slept in a far away location from hers, right on the floor under the ground, where it was all filled with Hydra and KGB agents working and protecting the Red Room.

However, his thoughts got suddenly interrupted when a too scalding sensation rolled down over his spine once he sensed a petite palm cupping his clothed balls before a slow stroke was made along his already aching hardened length.

“ _Stop, stop, stop! What do you think you are doing, Natalia?_ ” The man almost yelled, startled at her straight forward actions at the same instant he grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her back so she could separate her limbs from his.

“ _I’m touching you?_ ” Natalia stared at his face with slightly wide eyes, surprised but only for having him halt her touches on him “ _And from what I noticed, you were enjoying it. Very much._ ” She teasingly said, as her sight landed on his crotch area, spotting how the center of his sex was already tented underneath the tissue of his sportive pants, before shifting her gaze into his eyes again.

“ _Just because I fucking do, it doesn’t give you the right to take your advantage over me._ ” He sighed, feeling frustrated with the undesired sexual stream invading his body, whilst removing his grip onto her shoulders so he could rub his own temples.

“ _Why not? I want you, you want me… I don't see the problem of doing so._ ”

“ _What about your underage? What about none of us possessing any type of birth control?_ ”

The dark haired man was, after all, only a mere killing tool used by Hydra. Just that. Not even considered a human, with his own self-cravings like the sexual release every being needed. He only belonged as another part of their arsenal. So obviously, they wouldn’t even bother giving him a pair of condoms so he could use on a hooker or someone else during his long and lonely missions.

Natalia, on the other hand, being underage and still not having complete her training in the Red Room, haven’t gone through the infertility process, like he had knowledge of.

So, obviously, none of them could risk having sex together, when there wasn't any sort of birth prevention. Not even the possibility of making him orgasm outside of her was an option since his spermatozoon could still be found in his pre-cum.

“ _Oh, so you are waiting for my death to sleep with me? Because let’s face it: that can happen if I don’t complete the program._ ”

“ _You know you will complete it. You have to._ ”

“ _But what if I don’t? Won’t you regret not making love to me when you could?_ ”

He truly would; there was no doubt about that. But what could he do to make her understand that being caught by their superiors would end up in a worst fate than death?

“ _I_ _won’t let that happen. No matter what, you aren’t going to die in here._ ” He spoke in a softer way, almost like a low mumble, as he locked his gaze on hers with tenderness.

Visualizing how his whole aura seemed calmer than before, Natalia decided to adventure herself further into his encounter (once more) so she could position herself right across him, with some mere inches apart between their figures.

“ _I understand why you don’t want to try it. I really do. But please, Yasha…_ ” She whispered with her head high, so she could see into his crystal blue hues, as she reached his cheek, caressing gently the area filled with his stubble “ _I can’t live like this anymore. I won't let the fear stop me anymore. And I won't let another day pass without knowing how you taste and how your hands feel against my skin…_ ”

And with those words, the man felt himself completely giving up upon her spell.

Leaning his face down closer to hers, the man gently captured the girl’s smooth lips with his own, whilst his fleshy hand held her close by her nape and his metal one found its way on her hip, fully gluing their frames with no hint of rush.

Their kiss was tender, almost innocent, as each other felt every single inch of the other’s lips in slow movements, wanting to extend the initial collision of feelings and emotions blinding them.

The pads of his fingertips caressed her nape in regular circle motions, loving the warming sensation of that little patch of skin against his cold being, whilst his metal limb carefully gripped the fabric of her simple cream color (and rather plain) nightdress, around her hip area.

Natalia was patient and didn’t speed up anything between them; she also felt like losing herself in that lovely contact between their mouths.

In an attempt to reach his tall structure, the girl had positioned herself on her tip toes, and to not lose balance, while one of her palms remained stroking the man’s skin, the other was rested on top of his broad shoulder.

Upon some good amount of minutes in that same spot, The Winter Soldier began to notice how much she was forcing herself to stand still. Trying to release some of her pressure, he started walking backward, pulling her with him along the way, until his heels hit the iron frame of his bed and slowly went downwards to sit down with her straddling him.

Once their crotches met due their new position, Natalia let escape a faint moan, muffled by their still glued mouths.

However, the man interpreted that sound in the not most accurate way – maybe because he didn’t listen to something like that in a long distant time or simply because he was so involved in their kiss that he didn’t notice something very important.

“ _Did I hurt you?_ ” He whispered against her lips, after breaking their kiss.

“ _No… On the contrary. It felt damn good._ ”

Not quite understanding what she meant, the dark haired male opened his eyelids to lock his gaze with hers, through her half-closed orbs. A brow could be seen crooked in his facial features, as he looked at her in pure confusion.

But that so-called confusion soon found its path away from his brain.

In an act of pure audacity, the girl took a grip around the male’s hand; guided him towards the middle area between her legs (under her nightdress and above his clothed bulge) just to let him feel the bare flesh of her intimacy. Natalia wasn’t wearing any knickers, which ended up giving her a tremendous wave of pleasure when his covered cock created friction against her by their new position.

The American was scandalized at how bold someone could truly be to the point of walking into his personal quarters with no underwear on and made him touch it. Yet, her womanhood was so soft and heated up that he just couldn’t find the strengths enough to depart himself from there.

Their eyes were intensely staring at each other, with their faces only some few inches apart upon the rupture of their innocent kiss, when the man began to explore her private flesh with the pads of his long fingers.

At first, only soft caresses were made along her outer lips, sensing the skin with few curly pubic hairs already wet with her arousal, but soon the tip of his middle finger traveled upwards finding her sensitive nub. He barely touched it as he started circle motions around there, making Natalia instinctively bit down onto her bottom lip. She was more sensible than he thought, but probably because she had never been touched by any man and he was pretty certain she also didn’t have a lot of time to explore her own body.

His slow and slight contact against her clit was getting extended through the time they spent together, and the redhead was seriously getting more and more impatient; pleasure was already invading her, but not that powerful wave she craved so much for. Not supporting more the idea of not having the man really working on her as he should, the girl started pressing her own sex against his long fingers, rolling then her hips so she could provide herself the alluring sensation she urged for. A little dark smirk soon found its way across the male assassin’s lips as he watched her whole body language reacting in the manner she ground herself on his limbs.

But he desired more and more of her.

Finally, the American pressed more the pad of his middle finger against her fragile nub, stroking it with bigger precision and in a faster pace, creating a bigger shock of pleasure that slid down over her back and escaped through her vocal cords in a moan form.

Natalia quickly rested her petite palms on his bare shoulders, gripping his skin harder and harder every time a new impact of that scalding sensation hit her interior. He still hasn't done much but she could feel herself melting against his fingertips, and probably already staining his training pants with her arousing liquids.

“ _Put… Put it in me…_ ” She begged him in a mix of heavy breaths and sloppy moans.

In her own mind, when she asked him such thing, she meant his rock hard dick – something she could sense against her thighs, poking her muscles all the time.

But the dark-haired man wasn’t done with her. She might be already soaking wet, but she still needed a lot more preparation.

Halting his movements against her clit – which ended up by a disapproval grunt from her part – the male traveled his hands towards her chest, and carefully to not damage the tissue, he began to undo her nightdress until the last button was free, right above her navel. Separating the fabric apart, until it fell graciously over her shoulders but not fully down over her arms, he gave himself the moment he needed to analyze every single trace of her bust.

Her breasts were more beautiful than he ever imagined; they were firm and round, just in the right place to be, but her skin seemed way smoother, and he never thought nipples could be as rosy and stiff as hers were. Just the view of her nudity was driving him completely insane, and he couldn’t let that happen.

In an attempt to keep some of his sanity, the man leaned his head forth, and upon cupping her bosoms between his palms, he drove one of her little nipples right towards the encounter of his mouth. Parting his lips and sticking his tongue out, he began to give her teat some slow flicks, whilst his gaze swam towards her face, not wanting to miss a single reaction from her part.

Natalia was losing herself; never the idea of being touched on her breasts – and feeling so damn good – navigated through her mind before. She was turned into a moaning mess, what forced her to bit hard onto her bottom lip, preventing her from getting louder and making them get caught.

However, there was something truly bothering her; the erection held against its own free underneath the fabric of his pants. She had to do something about it.

Whilst the Winter Soldier sucked and licked her nipples, switching over one and other from time to time, leaving her pinky areolas covered in his slick saliva, the girl drove her own hands downwards into the encounter of the waistband of his attire, and with difficulty, tried to pull them slightly down, so she could get a grip around his shaft.

“ _What are you doing?_ ” He suddenly asked her upon noticing her actions, with a tone of voice filled with huskiness from his own deadly arouse.

“ _I want to touch you as well._ ” The redhead replied straight ahead, no shame nor jitters written over her facial traces, as she landed her stare from the male's eyes towards his neglected center, and slowly grew a little smirk on her plump lips " _And besides, it seems awfully painful._ "  

And it was. It truly fucking was. The sharp aching sensation never left him for a single moment since he got fully erected, screaming for attention and release from the grip of his pants.

Natalia remained still for a couple of seconds more, somewhat awaiting for any contradiction from his part; but none came out.

Finally feeling the power in her own posse, she took her attention once more towards the waistband of his pants and carefully, with his own aid by bucking his hips out, she tugged the material a little bit downwards until it got placed below his sack, around the beginning of his thighs.

Her mouth got watery at the view of his pulsing cock; so thick and in the perfect size to rip her inside walls apart; hard as a rock and with a pair of balls so full, she wondered if they could explode. A whitish liquid was pouring out from the slit on his glans, and the redhead never desired to taste something so bad in her entire life. She truly wanted to know what flavor he had against her tongue, and she pretty exposed it by licking her lips in a starving manner.

Noticing her reaction and her attentive stare at his manhood, the American released a low sensual chuckle, loving how she looked so tempted to take him in her mouth – something he also craved for, just to sense how nice she would feel with her rosy petals wrapped around his cock, sucking him until he could orgasm inside of her warm cave.

But the girl didn’t fulfill both of their lustful wishes.

Instead, she involved her petite hand on the base of his shaft and slowly began to stroke it up and downwards, in a steady and secure act, spreading his pre-cum all over his flesh when the pad of her thumb rolled around its tip, making a deep groan escape past the male’s lips.

Not enjoying how Natalia was doing all the work to give him the biggest amount of pleasure she could when he had halted his own sexual caresses on her to watch her doing him, the dark-haired man carefully drove his bionic hand towards her cunt.

Without any sort of warning, he started sliding his metal pads along her moistened folds; creating a fresh sensation against her heated skin that sent shivers all over her body before he started taking care of her neglected swollen clit in circular motions.

Yet, before the redhead could get familiarized with his treatment, he abruptly stopped it, taking then a new route: her vaginal hole. In there, he explored the walls of her entrance before he started penetrating her with his middle finger in a slow pace, not wanting to cause the girl any discomfort.

Natalia, sensing the intrusion inside of her virginal cavity, leaned her head forth, hiding her face against the crook of his neck, where she could muffle another loud moan, mixed with pleasure and hint of pain.

Upon feeling him fully into her canal, he kept quiet, not moving a single inch, so she could get used to the size of his metal finger – that wasn’t as slender as his fleshy one. He couldn’t truly feel the wetness or even the warmth provided from her womanhood, which he found really disappointing, but ended up doing it anyway due to a previous, somewhat, dirty conversation between them where the girl confessed she once desired to feel his bionic fingers inside of her to know what it felt like.

And the redhead didn’t regret it.

Now more comfortable with his intrusion, she could finally sense how fresh and smooth the metal was in the middle of her hot walls, sending goosebumps through her, making the baby hairs of her body instantly lift. It felt truly good – so good she began rolling her hips over his hand to create a better friction inside of her.

Spotting how her body was now acting, the male soon found his self-control to start thrusting into her, in slow and careful motions at the beginning but soon increasing the pace at the same instant she also began pumping his length in a harder and faster up and down movements.

As their pleasure grew during their mutual masturbation session, thin lines of sweat rolled down over their bare skins, what gave a total opportunity to Natalia capture a drop, which was sliding down over his neck, with her own tongue, tasting the salty water in her mouth and humming at how she loved it – especially because she was very aware that she had been the one making him release it.

The American shivered at the sensation of her moistened muscle licking a patch of flesh on his neck, and for some mere instants, he had to drive his mind away from their intimate moment before he could reach the ecstasy, way too sooner than he imagined.

Her petite palm working around his needy erection felt so damn good, along with her new open-mouthed kisses over his neck, shoulders, and collarbones that he continued to repeat the same process of delaying his orgasm to the point of having his balls hurting like shit. He wanted to come so bad; he thought he was going crazy.

Trying to find some stability and also some sanity, the man took another hold around one of the girl’s breasts with his free hand, and suddenly started to massage it between gropes before driving her teat again into his mouth, where he completely abused of it with his hungry tongue, flicking the little pinky nub over and over again, sucking it hard and even depositing some small bites with his white teeth.

Natalia was about to reach the edge herself with every single touch he provided her from her bosom to her pussy, but she also desired to deny it. Yet, she didn’t have the man’s self-control for such task, so in an unexpected manner, she released the grip around his cock, dropping her hand onto his bionic one, halting his actions.

“ _What?_ ” He asked her in pure confusion after freeing her nipple from between his swollen lips, so he could raise his head and look into her eyes.

“ _I was about to come._ ” She confessed, with no shame on her words – she was confident enough herself, especially around him.

“ _I thought that was the point in all of this._ ”

“ _It is. But not so soon…_ ” She said, slowly removing his hand away from her core, which ended up making her released a soft hiss at how empty she felt without him inside of her “ _I want you to put your cock inside of me, now._ ”

“ _We can’t do that, Natalia._ ” He said, somehow regretting it because he also wanted to get inside her, fulfilling all of their needy desires and rock her world as hard and as passionate as he could – but he couldn’t.

“ _We are not going to start again, are we?_ ” She sighed, feeling purely frustrated at how he was denying her the most wanted thing in her life.

“ _No, we are not. I’m already too into this to even stop myself before I make you come. But I can’t take your virtue. Not right now. It’s too dangerous to even risk it into knocking you up._ ” He spoke in a tender tone of voice, taking his human hand to the encounter of her face, and upon cupping her cheek, his thumb began to caress a patch of skin on there “ _But I promise you… After your ‘graduation ceremony’, the first thing I’ll do is drag you to here and make you mine; only mine for the rest of your days._ ”

“ _Do you really promise it, Yasha?_ ” She questioned him with her head slightly canted to the side, studying him to see if he was indeed telling the truth or merely lying to her so he could escape from her that night.

“ _I promise._ ” He nodded firmly, flashing a genuine smile before he leaned forth and captured her smooth plump lips with his, kissing her with a mix of innocent love and burning passion.

The redhead instantly responded to his kiss, wrapping her arms around his neck, fully gluing their frames together in an attempt to never let him go and also intensify their contact; which was pretty well accepted by the man who also wrapped his both muscular limbs around her slim waist.

Their brand new kiss slowly turned completely different from their first one when both of them deepened it, by angling their heads in opposite directions, and opening more their mouths so their tongues could go on the encounter of each other, in a sloppy sensual battle of ownership between massages and flicks.

During the scalding connection of their lips, Natalia began to sense once again that desperate wave of heat invading her being.

Trying to continue from the point they left, the girl began to grind her pelvis against his, creating now an enormous pleasing friction due to their flesh on flesh sexes, covered in each other’s slippery juices. Such new position provided the redhead a full sensation of him sliding forth and backward between her moistened folds, perfectly teasing her clit and the entrance to her needy hole.

The melody of muffled moans colliding with his lips started sinking into his ears, driving him once again insane at how nice she sounded like that.

Before he could even think about his own actions, the man quickly lifted her on his lap and turned them around, rolling them so she now could land on her back against the mattress of his single size bed.

The Winter Soldier disconnected his mouth from the girl’s, receiving a disapproving grunt from her part but once she spotted the dark alluring smile drawn on his lips, she bit down on her bottom lip, anticipating his next action.

The man began moving backward until the end of the bed; knelt onto the mattress and in a sensual slow motion, he took the pair of his large palms over the girl’s knees and carefully pulled them apart from each other. A gap between her lower limbs was created, big enough so he could position himself with his head between her inner thighs; dangerously close to her soaked bare womanhood.

He was more than prepared to taste her sweet intimate flavor.

* * *

 “Enough!” Bucky yelled in the middle of their session, trying to make Wanda stop the invasion in his mind.

The girl did so, and slightly leaned away from him, giving him space to move on her bed and place himself on a sitting form, so James could compose himself - and his own mind.

Both of them couldn’t believe what they had just seen in his memories – especially Wanda who found herself blushing like a tomato at that sexual view playing in his brain, with a woman she was so familiar with.

Bucky, from his side, was also startled at what they had just found, but for the first time in a long time, some pieces of the puzzle started to unite. Now he was aware of the reason behind that knowledge feeling he always got when standing next to Natasha, and why her green big eyes always hit him in the guts. They had been lovers in a remote past and she knew it – of course, she did. She hadn’t been put over and over again in a cryo-sleep to then get brainwashed and her memories violated to the point of making them vanish in a blink.

 _Yasha…_ She had called him that yesterday.

Now everything about their previous night together made perfect sense; how both of them felt so comfortable at touching each other to the point of not moving at all and don’t get bothered with the silence; their shared intimacy; at how she seemed to explore every single trace of him like she already knew them very well; their similar nightmares and God, his dream… He dreamt about her – a little and younger version of her in the Red Room.

“I… I didn’t know about you and Natasha…” Wanda started by speaking in pure perplexity, interrupting his thoughts.

“Me neither.”

“Do you think she remembers it? I mean, the time you two had a thing?”

“Yes.” He said firmly with no doubt, with his gaze fixed on a blank point in the room.

“This will be a shock for Steve.”

_Steve…_

_Fuck!_

“Wanda, you can’t tell about this to anyone. Did you hear me? Anyone!” He warned her, exchanging his attention towards her, so he could intensely stare into her eyes with his widened ones.

“Aren’t you going to tell him? He has the right to know, Bucky. He’s your best friend and he…” Before she could conclude her argument, the girl paused on her speech, biting her lip, afraid of what she could end up by revealing.

“You know about his feelings for her?”

Wanda didn’t say a word; instead, she gave him a faint nod, leaving him aware that also the youngest of the group knew what his best friend felt for the redhead. But of course, she knew it. Only a blind person wouldn’t notice the manner Steve reacted at her presence; how his smiles turned bigger when talking to her and how his eyes sparkled every time his gaze landed on her figure.

Bucky was really involved into a big mess between his best friend and his past lover.

_Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!_


	5. The Profound Love of Two Brothers

Upon the so enlightened session with Wanda, the man had made sure she wasn’t going to reveal to anyone about a single piece of history she found in his mind; after all, it was no one’s business and the people involved that indeed needed to know about such information were going to discover it by his own mouth. He just hadn’t found the right guts to do it, yet.

Bucky had spent the rest of his day in his private quarters, wandering around inside his own head, still trying to internalize what he had unveiled in that afternoon and unite it with every single event occurring along those almost two months he had been out of cryo. His self-being was so set in such task, hours ran by without even the slightest attention from his part, making the man skip dinner. At that point of the night, Steve was probably arranging everything to come to his own encounter so he could pass another night with the ex-assassin as planned.

However, as a pair of crystal blue hues roamed around the space he called his bedroom, he realized how uncomfortable he felt with the idea of having Steve sleep in his bed, when in the previous night, Natasha had been with him, in the most intimate moment he had ever been in years – even though it hadn’t been so enticing as the one they shared in his past, when he trained her in the Red Room.

Carefully, the man left his quarters and began to direct himself towards the blond’s bedroom, finally deciding it was time to reveal what had occurred in the session of that day, and about the whole history between him and the redhead.

Five minutes after, Bucky could already be spotted outside Steve’s room, taking a long deep breath in, trying to gain some courage and halt the coward within him for the last great amount of hours. After all, the ex-Captain America was his best friend and he… well… He definitely had some sort of feelings stuffing his heart towards the Russian spy. He had the total right to know about everything.

Yet, before Barnes could reach out with his fist to knock on the door across him, this one cracked open, exposing the tall and worked out figure of the blond, which in turn was shrouding the door knob with his large hand on the other side of the entrance.

“Bucky? What are you doing here?” Steve queried in pure bewilderment as he stepped aside to give the dark haired man some space to walk into his quarters.

“Do you mind if we sleep here tonight?” Bucky simply replied in a question mode, when already placed in the middle of the room and turned around so he could face the other.

“Of course not. Is everything alright with your own room?”

“Yeah. I just didn’t feel like sleeping in there today; just to change things a little bit.”

The taller man didn’t pronounce a single word; he simply nodded his head in an affirmative response, showing one of his small but genuine smiles towards Barnes.

Momentarily, a silence decided to land upon them. But it wasn’t uncomfortable, in fact, it was quite peaceful and it just seemed the right thing to do when they both started to strip off their clothes so they could finally go to bed and have their so desire rest – once more, Steve ending up fully naked due his new habit created in the hot weather of Wakanda whilst Bucky just wore his plain grey boxers.

They were placed on Steve’s huge mattress, only covering the bottom limbs of their bodies with a thin summer sheet, already lights off, when after some good ten minutes, James decided to part his lips, so phrases could slip out of his mouth and free the confession locked in his interior.

Yet, before he could even think about the most appropriate manner to initiate such conversation, the blond male stole the opportunity towards himself.

“Buck?” Steve called the other’s attention almost in a mumble as he faced the ceiling and rested his head above his crossed muscular arms.

“Hm?” Bucky shifted around in his side position, landing on his stomach with his arms involving Steve’s substitute pillow with the pair of his own upper limbs, while his face was turned to the man’s direction, so the blond could have his full heed.

“Can I talk to you about something?”

“Everything, pal.” Barnes replied with a simple smile, as he eyed his best friend from his spot, watching the man staring fixedly at the ceiling hovering above their heads.

Steve didn’t start any sort of speech for about two long minutes, and Bucky let him take his time because, whatever what was going on around the blond’s mind, it must be something truly difficult to reveal at once; which could be easily noticed across his facial features that screamed struggle all around.

And it was indeed true. Rogers couldn’t simply find the words to express out what he craved to talk to the other so much, but he knew he needed to. Steve was fighting within himself to understand what had been happening to himself and more accurately with his own heart; especially after the events occurring in that day. What he had sensed rushing through his veins, making his heartbeat speed up in such tremendous manner, when he and Natasha had almost kissed in the gym, was something he couldn’t quite believe. He didn’t felt like that in 70 years – even if he had felt something similar when he found Carter again, three years ago, but it wasn’t the same anymore and he was very aware of it.

Peggy was and will always be his first love and something he could call of the first lover since his own feelings were mutual from her part. Unfortunately, they didn’t get time to deepen their relationship what made him regret it until nowadays. And that was also the reason he hadn’t figure out what he felt for the redhead till some hours ago; because he couldn’t simply get over about all the thoughts and emotions of the ‘what if’ between him and the brunette, to the point of finally realizing his heart had indeed been filled all this time, but not with Peggy as he imagined so. Natasha was now the one occupying his romantic emotions.

“I think I might be in love with someone…” He finally spoke, not daring to exchange his gaze towards the man lying by his side “And I know it might sound crazy, but I think I’ve only realized it today.”

“Only today?” Bucky asked him in a soft speech as he released a brief chuckle; not because of the topic of their conversation, but because he knew very well what was coming next and no matter how hard he tried to convince himself that Steve was already pretty aware of what he felt for the woman, he simply knew the other was still too slow when it came to heart issues.

“Yeah. I think my mind has been so busy with everything going on in our lives, that I sort of ignored what my heart was telling me.”

“First of all,” The dark haired man started talking, only pausing so he could lift his figure and find a better position with his rear against the mattress and his back rested on the headboard of the bed “That was really cheesy, Steve. Second, how can you continue being that retarded? I mean, Natasha is gorgeous and a wonderful woman with a powerful attitude – which seems to be your type, by the way – so how could you only notice it now?”

“Wait… You knew about Nat?” Steve’s voice reverberated, looking startled at his best friend’s sentences, as his sky blue orbs turned to fix on the other man.

“Everyone knows about it, pal.” A faint sigh escaped past Bucky’s lips before he offered the other guy a compassionate smile.

Now the ex-assassin was indeed doomed. How was he going to find the courage he needed to confess to Steve what had been happening between him and the Russian woman and what had happened in their past together? Steve would get crushed; especially because, from what it seems, he had only now realized his true feelings towards the redhead. How could Bucky steal that away from him?

Yes, there was nothing going on between the Asset and the Black Widow, everything they had was settled down in a remote past. Yet, he knew Steve wouldn’t see it like that. The blond adored Bucky too much to not give him the slightest opportunity of having him find happiness next to Natasha – what, until now, might be the stupidest argument on earth since no one knew if the woman desired indeed to continue with their love history or simply live her life like she had until now, which could be alone or, who knows, with the ex-Captain America himself.

“How long do you know?” Steve asked Bucky, now in a calmer state once he stilled himself, with his heavy arms placed onto the mattress along his torso sides.

“I’m not quite sure, but maybe since I came out of the cryo?” He replied with a simple shrug as he kept pondering about the subject, with his gaze fixed on a blank spot on the zone in front of his sight “I just noticed the way you react when you are with her.”

“Is it that obvious?”

“A bit, yeah, pal.”

“I must look like a fool next to her.” The blond said with a long sigh, rubbing and shrouding his visage with his large calloused hands.

“Man, please… You are 99, you are no longer a teenage boy to be concerned about such immature things.” Bucky commented in a mock tone, trying to ease the other’s personal frustration.

“98.” The taller man corrected his friend by sending him a glare through the corner of his orbs but ended up by laughing at himself since Bucky’s sentence was quite accurate “And yeah, you’re right. I just… I don’t feel something like this in a long, long time. Probably, since I was 23 or 24.”

“When you met Peggy Carter?” Barnes questioned him, even though he already knew the answer for that.

“Hm. She was very special to me. You know that Buck.”

“Yeah I do, pal. You seemed unstoppable when you had her by your side.” Bucky noted, briefly smiling to himself at the memories of his best friend standing next to the brunette – they indeed made a great couple back then.

“Unfortunately, I’m only unstoppable when I have you by my side.” Steve raised his arm and planted his palm on top of Bucky’s shoulder, giving him a light but firm squeeze whilst such sentence came out of his mouth, not even taking the time to think about the profound statement since it was the purest truth in his whole life.

Barnes lowered his face, letting escape a short but joyful laughter at the other’s phrase before he shifted his gaze to land it on Steve’s, eyeing him with his own heart stuffed with love and warmth at how he could have someone so wonderful in his life like his best friend.

“That was gay as fuck, you punk.” He said, snickering as their pair of eyes remained locked on each other and he affectionately smacked the blond’s rock hard breast in a single motion “But I get you, pal. Same here, same here.”

“Hey, everybody already has an idea that we are a ‘thing’ so why keep denying it?” Steve asked in pure playful mode, now with a more relaxed aura hovering over his whole figure as he let his hand fall down again, but this time across his waist area.

“Maybe because we don’t like blokes?”

“How can you be so sure I don’t?” Steve teasingly asked, throwing at the other a little attempt of a smirk as the ones he was so accustomed to catching, drawn over Natasha’s crimson set of lips.

“Because you have only liked gals until now?” Bucky answered with wide orbs, blinking his small eyelashes in a quick pace as he perplexedly stared down at his buddy “But why? Are you also trying to come out as bisexual – because if you do, let me tell you that it took you 87 years to do it and I’m truly disappointed with you for only telling me now.”

Watching the manner the dark haired man reacted towards his playful jest, made a loud and amusing laughter escape from Steve’s vocal cords to the point of shutting his eyes down and throwing back his head against the pillow, while his both hands held him down by the stomach.

“Seriously Buck, you needed to watch your face right now. It’s priceless!”

A pair of crystal blue hues rolled around in Bucky’s facial traces, once Steve’s phrase only confirmed him what he had said was only a mere joke to pick on the poor ex-assassin. Yet, the dark haired man couldn’t find the slightest hint of irritation in his interior towards the blond – in fact, it was quite delightful to have them get a moment of pure felicity, where they could play around like they did when kids.

“You seriously can be a true punk, sometimes.” Barnes spoke out, biting down on his bottom lip as a prevention to also hold down his own laugh due to Steve’s contagious one, at the same time he removed the pillow positioned behind his back and threw it right over Rogers’ face.

 

 

Unlike the other nights the two buddies shared together, they didn’t drift to sleep as soon as they used to. Instead, they stayed until two in the morning talking about a little bit of everything, always in a light atmosphere, filled with guffaws and playful touches here and there. Yet, the topic ‘Natasha’ didn’t come back nor even for a single instant. No matter how strong their friendship was, it almost seemed like the men weren’t comfortable enough to converse about the redhead, probably because she was part of their team or simply because both had valid reasons not to – especially Bucky, who knew his courage had been hidden right deep inside of him.

However, there was something that indeed never changed when they slept together: Barnes’ agonizing sounds and the manner his body expressed itself with the horror occurring in his nightmares.

Steve woke up with the loud and stirred manifestations happening on Bucky’s side of the bed. With exhausted half-closed eyelids, the blond took a quick glance towards the clock settled down onto his nightstand right next to him, only to verify that his calculations were right, and it wasn’t even 6 am.

“Buck…” Steve called out with a husky sleepy voice in a low tone, turning his frontal frame towards the spot where the other man could be found “Buck, wake up…”

Rogers continued the attempts to make the dark haired bloke awake from his night terror, but with no success – whatever was happening inside his mind, was holding him down against his own will, not letting him get free so he could return to the blond and finally calm down. Obviously, that such profound state of sleeping, was leaving Steve concerned about how he could release his best friend’s mental pain, since in the other times such events occurred, it was pretty easy to make Bucky wake up and after an hour or so of talking and tranquilizing words, they would both return to their required sleep.

“Buck, c’mon, you are stronger than this…” Steve murmured in a sweet appeasing voice when he decided to lean his body closer to the other’s, involving the man with his muscular arms around his neck and shoulders area, positioning Bucky against his own toned chest.

The blond rested his chin on top of Barnes’ head as he remained whispering appeasing words, whilst five of his fingers stroked the male’s back up and downwards in slow movements over his spine. Their fleshes were glued on each other, making Steve sense how Bucky’s skin was chill and sweaty on the contrary of his warm and dry one, leaving a good contrast of cold and hot along the connection of their frames.

They remained in that same position for some time, with every single limb entwined on Bucky’s, until Steve began to final notice an ease of movements made by the male’s muscles. This one seemed to start reacting towards the blond’s attempts of waking him up, and once his eyelids spread widely, leaving him with a full sight of his surroundings, the Asset’s body paralyzed with total rigidity on his members for a couple of minutes. Then it shifted in a brief flurry inside the Super Soldier’s embrace, to end up cringing with his teary face hidden on the other male’s hairless chest.

Rogers didn’t pronounce any sort of sound when he felt his own figure get smashed by the strength of his best friend, when he began to hitch his shaky arms and wrap them around the blond’s, somehow trying to discover some sanity upon his night terror or simply needing some human contact to feel himself again.

Bucky’s head ached in a tremendous manner, almost like exploding; his heart pounded so hard he wondered if he could get a heart attack; the air didn’t fly properly towards the interior of his lungs; his skin was damp and sticky with the sweat provided from his nightmare or from the hot weather invading every single area of Wakanda; and his mind… oh god, his mind was a total chaos. Even though not desiring to visualize those terrible images he had during his sleep, he felt frustrated he couldn’t recall them precisely as the other times those events occurred. But he was very aware of how powerful and terrifying they were by the erratic reaction of his body language. Yet, he just couldn’t remember what he had dreamed of, only a slight idea popping out in his brain: Natasha – no matter what she did or what happened to her – was part of it.

“Bucky, are you here with me?” Steve asked in a low soft voice, upon some long minutes in that tranquil silence between them, while he continued to stroke the man’s back.

“I am now. I’m sorry Steve…” The dark haired male responded almost in a mumble against the other’s chest, with husky voice due to the damage he had caused to his vocal cords when screaming in horror.

“It’s okay. I’m glad you are back.” A brief and almost inaudible sound was made when a gentle smile bloomed across the blond’s set of lips.

James simply nodded in an affirmative gesture towards what the soldier had just said, parting then his lips slightly so a faint sigh could escape past them, against Steve’s chest. None of them switched positions now that Barnes was fully awake and back to his normal state. The two men just let their bodies remain in contact, with toned legs entwined and arms involving the other’s frame closer to themselves.

For an outsider, that scene would come across as another completely different one, a more romantic and somewhat lovely between a couple. But the truth was beyond all of that. None of the males were interested in the same gender, yet, they openly admitted how much love and care they had for each other, in a totally platonic manner, just like blood brothers. They had shared experiences since they were pretty young, and until the whole ‘Bucky’s death’ accident, they had never fully witnessed the departure from other and other’s life. So being that close, and touching almost in an intimate situation, was nothing from another world, and merely a simple act of their true and strong friendship.

“Steve?” James called out almost in a whisper, attempting to get the other male’s attention and also to verify if the blond was already asleep or not since his fingers movements on his back had ceased.

“Yeah?”

“I’m gross. I think I need a shower…” Bucky hesitated a little bit on his speech, before he continued it with a long sigh, hating the weak feeling running across him “Can you give me a hand?”

“Sure, buddy.”

In pure comfortable silence, the two men broke apart and, thoroughly, left the bed they had been placed until then. Steve, noticing how slow and carefully Bucky stepped around the room towards the bathroom, decided to lean closer to the other and smoothly involved an arm around the dark-haired guy’s waist, aiding him out during their path.

The manner Barnes’ limbs seemed weaker upon his unstable sleep, left the blond male tremendously worried. That odd situation was not common. Yes, there were always screams, erratic muscle movements, drops of sweat and occasionally tears, but never none of those nightmares left his capabilities to move fragile when the man got completely awake and calmer. Steve wondered if the sessions with Wanda were indeed a good idea after all or if something so dread about his hidden memories were capable of such damage when once revealed.

Whether or not, the super soldier decided to shut down his mind and drop all of those thoughts behind his mind once the two of them arrived into the private bathroom in the interior of Steve’s quarters.

Carefully, the blond tugged his best friend into the shower tub, making him settled down on the floor, upon the dark haired guy removed his last piece of clothing, leaving him completely bare to the world. Having Rogers scrub Bucky’s skin, pass shampoo along his chin-length dark hair and wash all the foam away with the rainfall flow of the water coming from the shower, brought the memories of countless times they had done the same exact thing but on opposite roles, when Steve was so fragile and ill that he couldn’t simply clean his figure, which also made appear a simple on his mouth.

They spent half an hour during that whole process, sometimes in an appeasing silence and others having small talks about random and little things – none of them being the event that occurred in Bucky’s dreams of that night since the blond assumed his friend didn’t feel like touching on that specific topic.

It was almost 8 am when they finally reached Steve’s bed once more, both of them utterly exhausted due to the lack of proper and restless sleep time. At such hours in the morning, they would already be out of their private quarters, initiating their daily routine, but for an exchanged, the men decided to skip it for a today and rest a little bit more until lunch time.

 

 

Unlike the two men, Natasha had spent a (surprisingly) great night sleeping – no nightmares; no insomnia; no spy security motions upon weird noises; no waking up in the middle of the night because of natural body system reasons; nothing. And due to all of that, she had woken up pretty early, in a good mode and with her muscles feeling perfectly satisfied upon long hours of a delightful rest, with the biggest amount of energy she could recall in a good bunch of months.

Not wasting any more time, the redhead jumped from her bed and immediately directed herself towards the bathroom settled in her own personal quarters, and decided it was time to have a long and relaxing bath only for herself after, probably, years of not doing so.

The tub was already filled with warm water when the woman began to strip off her night attire so she could pleasantly step inside and with no hesitations, lie down and enjoy her private moment.

It was indeed relaxing, and she didn’t remember when was the last time she felt so in peace and in such appeasing situation, only by herself and no one more to bother. The last events occurring had brought an irritating ache to her head, leaving her in no mood to socialize or even do anything productive to her life – even if she thought there was nothing indeed to be done since they were in the middle of a jungle.

Yet, her mind couldn’t drop the images of what had happened yesterday with her and the two men, which for another side, made her wondering whether those same incidents were the reason behind her wonderful night or if she was merely exhausted to the point of not waking up in the middle of it.

Never in a million of years had the idea of having another intimate and intense moment with Barnes crossed her mind. Yes, they had been lovers, and he was the first man taking her purity away from all single aspects – physical and emotional – but the thought of being that close to him again seemed absurd and almost too unreal to be true. They weren’t the same people anymore, with different personalities and life experiences. They couldn’t, no matter what, bring back all those times they spend together in secret, enjoying the burning flame of passion in her youth in the Red Room Program. And mostly, they couldn’t do all of that again, mostly because he didn’t seem to have a mere fragment of her in his memories; of course, such thing could change in the future with the work he was having with Wanda, but she knew it would be almost impossible.

What, thinking of that, made her recall the scene happening in the gym with her and the other male.

Natasha hadn’t planned to get herself in the middle of a complex triangle, but when Steve’s lips almost touched hers during their training… it was like if everything around them had disappeared, and she couldn’t simply understand that sensation. And she couldn’t also understand the reason behind his own sudden actions. During the five years they spend together, working and building up a strong and trustworthy friendship, the man had never crossed any sort of line towards her – in fact, she had been the one doing it, three years ago when they were hiding from Rumlow and she boldly kissed him to pass by unnoticed by the other guy going in their encounter. Steve wasn’t the type of man to make an unexpected and, probably, undesired move towards a female, even if the redhead wasn’t opposing to it at all!

She got shocked with her own persona at how vulnerable she found herself against his actions and how much she craved from the divine contact of their mouths, or maybe even more. Because yes, the spy, even now, wondered how nice it would be to get on his bed and let him ravish her body like he never did, leaving her in pure ecstasy and begging for more. God! Even now thinking of all those sinful things, made her body shiver in despair for a single sensual touch to ease all of her lustful cravings.

Not giving too much thought about what was about to happen, Natasha shut down her long eyelashes, leaned her head backward and slowly, made her own right-hand snake around over her figure as the image of a tall, muscular and blond man invaded her imagination. She viewed Steve’s long palm instead of her own passing smoothly from one of her breasts, towards her flat stomach and ending its path on her lady parts between her inner thighs. Once in there, she teased her own needs by caressing her hairless mound – wondering if the man would enjoy the no vestige of reddish womanly curls – before dropping her movements to her outer lips, stroking them with a single digit, up and downwards for a couple of times at a slow pace before circling her aching entrance. Yet, she didn’t dare herself to get adventuress for now at penetrating herself with the idea of being the super soldier doing it instead with his well full size of dick, since the lack of sexual intercourse for more than a year could have left her tighter than she usually was; pain was not the deal she was looking for in her own moment.

Instead, the pad of her middle fingertip found her sensitive nub, already pulsing with excitement. She faintly flicked it once before a pleasing pressure was made once she started touching herself very gently, creating waves of a scalding pleasure sliding through her entire body, making it beg for more and more. And the redhead took no longer to respond towards her own urges. The lusty contact made against her clit only began to increase, making her arch her back and let slip out velvet low moans from her parted cherry lips, mixed with the name of the man she was day dreaming of… And also Bucky’s.

The amount of ecstasy was so tremendous when the image of her partner changed towards the dark haired one, she didn’t even need the help of her second hand abusing of her vaginal hole or even stimulating one of her breasts or any part of her skin to reach the edge of her own orgasm. She was very aware of what it felt like having his own tact exploring her body and freely giving her the most alluring pleasure no man had ever given her. Before she could notice the warning of its arrival, she had already come with a loud enticing whimper escaping past her opened mouth; back arched in a perfect angle; palm still rested between her shaky legs and juices getting mixed with the water of her bath.

Who could ever think that spending 18 months with no sexual release and imaging those two extremely attractive and beautiful men touching her, could make her orgasm in a matter of fewer than five minutes?  She had to repeat the experience, letting her own mind get free and connected to her sexual cravings.

And Natasha did it. Over and over and over again inside her bathtub, until she felt completely exhausted, totally satisfied and wondering how enticing would be spending a night in the same bed as those two.


	6. Flourishing New Emotions

Upon her ‘special’ time alone, Natasha had gathered her own breath and self-composer so she could finally end up with her relaxing bath; dress some light but comfortable clothes and directed herself towards the exit of her bedroom, towards the common kitchen where everyone used to get together and have the first meal of the day.

Once she arrived the entry of such place, the delicious fragrance of black coffee; toasts with butter; fried bacon and scrambled eggs, penetrated her nostrils, leaving her stomach growl with hunger. Already placed on the kitchen island, was Sam and Scott, taking sips from their scalding mugs filled with coffee and busying themselves one with a newspaper and the other with his cell phone while Wanda, sweetly, prepared their breakfast.

“Morning.” The redhead greeted everyone as she stepped into the area and leaned closer to the counter next to Wanda’s spot, where the coffee machine was settled down, and after reaching out for a mug from the cupboard above her head, the woman began to pour down the nice and strong black liquid.

“Good morning Natasha.” The younger female of the group was the first one to pronounce herself in her foreigner accented English, without exchanging her attention from the fry pans and the food she was preparing “Do you want some bacon and eggs too?”

“Maybe later. But don’t worry Wanda, I won’t turn you into my personal slave, unlike other people.” And at such provocative comment, a smirk bloomed over the spy’s set of lips as she landed her gaze upon the two men still comfortably seated down onto their chairs near the kitchen island, paying attention to their personal objects.

“I heard that, Redhead.” Sam finally spoke out, never switching his attention from the newspapers held by his large calloused hands.

“Oh you there, Sam? I didn’t notice your morning person standing there.” A velvet brief chuckle escaped from her mouth before her cherry petals got occupied with the mug filled with coffee when she took a long sip from it.

“I could say the same about you. Isn’t it too early for you to be out of bed?”

In fact, it was indeed a bit too soon for the woman to be out of her own quarters. It was not like she used to sleep a lot and prolong her rest for the full morning, but she just decided to remain a little more in her bed, lazing around as her own persona mentally prepared herself to socialize with the rest of the group.

Don’t take it wrong, Natasha enjoyed her partners’ – friends’ – company and she really appreciated those people and even got accustomed to cohabit with them, every single day. Yet, maybe because of everything she witnessed and lived during the initial years of her life, the woman continued to need some noiseless time alone, before facing the world as she really was and not one of her ‘masks’ she used to create to defend herself against something in any sort of mission.

“What’s the problem with waking up earlier today?”

“What about your too bright mood at 8 am?” This time was Scott’s turn to pronounce himself, dropping the technologic object from his palms to over the island’s surface so he could throw his stare at the woman, with a playful smile drawn across his mouth “Aren’t you the one who has always a terrible mood by the morning?”

“I do not have a terrible mood by the morning!” Natasha exclaimed, almost feeling offended at the man’s sentence as she leaned her back area against the fridge “I’m just… quieter, compared to all of you agitated people.”

“I think ‘grumpy’ is the correct word.” Said Wanda out of nowhere, after finishing the men’s food, taking then two plates and serving them some good amount of scrambled eggs and four slices of bacon for each.

“I thought you were on my side…” The spy almost choked on her drink when the girl’s words filled her ears, leaving her orbs slightly wider as she stared at the other “Traitor.”

“I’m just being honest, Natasha.” Replying with a faint shrug of shoulders, the Scarlet Witch then turned her attention towards the oven once again, preparing everything to make her own breakfast now “You sure you don’t want me to make some food for you too, though?”

“Positively sure.” A firm nod was visible from the redhead’s spot before she took a long sip from her own coffee, finishing it in a matter of seconds when a thought suddenly invaded her mind “Where’s Steve? Skipping breakfast again to train in the gym?”

Natasha couldn’t exactly realize where that sudden interest for the blond had come from since she wasn’t the type of person to wander around questioning what people were indeed or not doing at any precise instant – especially in such early hours of the day.

The man was indeed her biggest ally – friend – among the rest living in the security fort of Wakanda, but he still had his own personal doings and it never bothered her about it. However, something was blooming inside of her since the event occurring between them less than 24 hours ago and also upon her self-touching moment in her bathroom not long before, with the man invading part of her sexual fantasies. She couldn’t simply explain it, but she knew they really needed some sort of conversation to figure out what had crossed their minds when they almost kissed. Maybe it was only pure carnal desire, maybe it was something more. Who knew if they didn’t decide to resolve their issues?

“If he’s skipping it or not, I have no clue. But he’s not in there.” Sam was now the one speaking to the group, cutting a large piece of bacon so he could bring it into his mouth “I already checked it myself when I didn’t find him in here when I arrived.”

“Which is pretty weird since Cap is a very morning person.” Scott commented after swallowing some eggs and toast down into his throat.

“Maybe he’s somewhere else.” Wanda said, participating in the conversation even though her back was turned to the three other people.

“No. Cap only begins his mornings with food or some sort of training.” The Falcon took the turn of the converse into his command once more as he lifted the coffee cup with five long fingers involving the object and bringing it to the encounter of his plump lips, he sipped from the dark strong drink and then settled it down over the kitchen island “And let’s face it, I’m not seeing him running around in the jungle no matter how damn buff the dude is.”

“Probably he’s still with Barnes.” Natasha commented after positioning her dirty mug in the sink and walked near the island, taking the only available seat right next to Sam.

“Do you think they are…?” The inappropriate query came from the Ant-Man, who exchanged his wide gaze around so it could land on every single person in that room – including Wanda’s who had now turned her torso slightly so their eyes could meet – but ended up receiving three pairs of judging glares “What? I’ve nothing against it! I’m just wondering.”

“Anyway…” A roll of orbs could be spotted on Sam’s features upon hearing the ridiculous statement his comrade had just pointed out; making him shift his attention towards the spy by his side “I’m glad I found you first, Redhead. I need to discuss something with you.”

“What is it?” Natasha replied in a question form in her most tranquil manner, as she simultaneously picked up with the pads of her index finger and thumb, a bit of scrambled eggs from Sam’s plate and brought it into her parted lips as if it was the most common thing to do – steal people’s food right in their face.

If Wilson mattered the previous fact, he didn’t oppose to it. Maybe because it was a futile thing to discuss, or maybe because he simply was getting accustomed to the manner that Natasha Romanoff demonstrated how she was indeed comfortable around someone or how that person was in her good terms. Thus, he could not worry about anything of it and pass on quickly to the right topic invading his mind since yesterday and that he needed to talk about it with the woman.  

“Cap’s big day is coming and I know how much in peace and happier the dude is just by having that hobo with him again, but I and the guys thought about arranging a party for his 99th birthday. Maybe it’s not the most accurate thing to do right now due to everything still going on, but… I think it’s a good opportunity to lighten up everyone’s head and for some hours, forget this terrible year and just act like normal beings, I guess?”

“Do you think that’s a good idea?”

“I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure we all need some booze.”

“Shouldn’t we be discussing this with Bucky too? He’s Steve’s best friend after all.” Wanda gave her opinion, finishing the second round of food, this time lesser than before since it was only for herself.

After placing everything on a white plate, she made her path towards the island where everyone was, and with no need to have any more words pronounced, Natasha had the delicacy to depart from her own seat so the younger girl could take it and eat her deserved breakfast.

“Talking about Barnes…” Romanoff started speaking, hesitating then a second to step closer to the sink where she began to wash her own dirty mug and somewhat find a pretty good pretext to cover her own visage, not desiring to expose out now how her full interest was landed on the ex-assassin “Where is he?”

“Probably still sleeping… With Steve.” Scott commented almost in a mumble, trying to hide his amused smile by leaving it really small and with its corners turned downwards, making everyone in the room roll their eyes at that childish sentence.

“They probably had a long and tiring night again.” Wanda said pointing out the obvious and letting everyone nod their heads at such phrase since it was most likely to be the accurate thing happening between them.

“Yeah. We should let them sleep a little bit more.”

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

The hours ran by and the morning vanished away in a blink of an eye. Before they could even notice it, lunch time had already arrived, and yet, no sign of the two men. No one in the group seemed to give too much thought about such issue since no one really did care if they overslept. Every single person of their group knew how horrifying Bucky’s nights were with the horror living in his dreams, so let the two sleep a little bit longer than what they were used to, sounded the best option.

Notwithstanding, Natasha couldn’t find herself the right amount of strength to ease her concern. It was not a common habit of having Steve spend his whole morning in the bed, even if the night with Barnes was a total chaos; which brought her the idea that the dark haired man’s nightmares might have turned more problematic and even erratic than before. She feared for the both of them – Bucky’s mental state and the Rogers’ physical one.

Until the date, the Asset had never crossed any sort of line during the sleep time; he never turned himself into a dangerous subject nor even attacked or damaged somehow the person sharing the bed with him. But it was a possibility. Who knew after all? Dreams could be so real sometimes; no one really had the right answer to say whether they could indeed remain inside a person’s head or if they could come out into the real world.

The redhead really did try to occupy her brain with the whole plans for the super soldier’s birthday, but she simply couldn’t, and upon trying – ‘trying’ being the key word since her attention was in another place – to aid Wanda and Sam with the preparations for their lunch, Natasha just let her body act in pure instinct.

Leaving the kitchen along with the people working in there – whose ended up surprised by her abrupt departure – the woman determined to finally make her way towards Bucky’s private quarters, since it was the common area where they would spend their nights together. However, after knocking on the door countless times with no answer from the other side, Natasha invaded the (empty) room and spotting no vestiges of the men, left her slightly startled and even intrigued.

Had they already left and she missed them?

The next route she decided to take – before start over thinking – was the gym where they all used to train around and worked out their bodies or simply run out of their energies. But once again, the zone was also soulless, making an unusual fast chain of thoughts invading her head.

Where the hell could they be?

But a sudden click inside her messy head was made when she answered that same question by herself only.

Walking in a steady but quickened pace, the spy directed her own form towards the blond’s bedroom. She couldn’t find a proper reason for them being there, but it was an option and that intriguing puzzle of what their localization was, started seriously leaving her completely erratic – what was utterly out of her persona.

Long steps were given and in a mere of one minute, the woman was already standing firm and erected right across Steve’s door. Inhaling a great amount of fresh air into her lungs, easing her own action and emotions, the female reached out with her fist and gently knocked three times and waited for some sort of response. None was given. Natasha tried again those same gentle knocks and once again no sound could be captured from the inside.

As she had previously done with the other room belonging to the dark haired man, the redhead shrouded some five petite fingers around the door’s knob and thoroughly, to not make any sort of noise, she swirled the handle and quietly the door creaked open.

The view from that zone was completely different from the other one. The room was indeed filled with darkness, with the lights out and the curtains closed around the windows, preventing the outside natural illumination from invading the space. Yet, some narrow sun rays still got able to snake around, giving her a decent image of what was going on in the middle of Steve’s personal quarters.

On top of the man’s wide bed, there were the two best friends, sleeping peacefully. Both of them were lying down on their backs, facing with closed eyelids the white ceiling above their heads; a thin summer sheet covering parts of their bodies – especially the blond’s sexual organ – and limbs outspread all over the mattress and over each other’s frames. Bucky was sleeping with his pink reddish lips parted, making a soft snore noise leaving his interior; his head was rested on Steve’s right bare shoulder whilst his left bionic arm was sloppily extended onto the other man’s torso, turned backwards, to the point of her spotting his metal palm opened to the air. Rogers, on his side, was with a muscular arm spread under Barnes’ nape, serving as a personal pillow for his buddy, while the other was almost hanging out of the edge of the bed; his breath was calm but profound, making his chest rise and fall; his toned legs were all entwined with the other man’s, but leaving him with total control to move around.

Visualizing such intimate but somehow adorable view, made the woman’s heart melt and a little but genuine smile bloom across her cherry set of lips. The love emanating from those two was so strong she almost could sense it on her own spot, still on the door’s entrance. Natasha indeed found fascinating how a friendship could be so powerful no matter how many years they spent apart, and she somewhat envied it – even if she knew she had a similar bond with Clint.

Soon as she entered the place and watched what was happening in there, soon the redhead found her own movements leaning backward to exit the area through the same open door she still held her palm on the handle, carefully and slowly closing it with her departure.

“Who’s there?” A masculine low volume query could be heard from inside before the spy completely got out of the space.

Halting her actions once she recognized the voice being echoed into her ears, Natasha’s breath hitched, leaving her speechless for a couple of seconds as she remained paralyzed with her frame half inside half outside the room, but fortunately with the door’s material right in front of her visage, preventing her and the man from locking their gazes.

“It’s me, Steve.” She started, almost in a whisper; fearing that he was the only one already awake “I’m sorry, go back to sleep.”

“What time is it?” He questioned her in a husky sleepy voice, but still with a low volume – giving her the affirmation that indeed Bucky was still sleeping next to him.

“Noon. But don’t worry. Go rest a bit more.”

No response was pronounced from the other side towards her, only a mere ‘shit’ was mumbled, making the female bit down onto her bottom lip to prevent an amusing sound from coming out since it wasn’t quite usual to hear the big (ex) Captain America to utter any sort of cursing words.

“I’ll be leaving, Steve. See you later.”

“Wait! Don’t go already.” He asked, leaving Natasha still firm on the same spot, without moving any single inch “Give me ten seconds.”

And she started to count.

The redhead slightly moved aside, remaining with the door slightly open, as she positioned herself against the wall right next to the entrance. Almost no noise could be noticed from the interior – probably since the blond was trying to not make any, afraid to wake up his still resting buddy.

Exactly ten seconds later, Steve could be already found next to the entry of his personal quarters, stepping outside and carefully closing the door behind him. Natasha’s gaze landed on him from head to toe in an unnoticeable manner, spotting how he was now wearing a plain white tank top and some dark blue pajamas pants along with a messy and extremely sexy bed blond hair.

“Is everything alright Nat?” He finally spoke out in a question mode, standing with his frontal side totally facing her profile one, as she continued with her back rested against the wall and her arms crossed below her bosom.

“Yeah. I was just checking if you guys were okay since no one had any clue about you two from the whole morning.” She simply replied, trying to expose out no interest even it was a complete lie, by shrugging her shoulders and speaking in a calm and lower way.

“We overslept.” He stated the obvious, by raising one of his hands and slightly scratching his nape “Bucky’s nightmares were worse this dawn and when we found ourselves in a state to rest once again, it was almost 8 am.”

“Is he fine?” A hint of concern now slipped past from the woman’s part, widening slightly her green orbs and moving away from her spot, standing now across Steve’s position, with their frames only some inches of distance.

“He is now. But it was not easy. I never took so long to wake him up from his night terrors before and after that, his whole muscles were fragile. Almost like his physical part had also suffered from what happened in his sleep.” A long concerned sigh escaped from the man’s rosy lips as he leaned his side figure against the door of his room, with his temple rested on the jamb “It was truly terrorizing. I never saw him like that.”

“You have to give him time, Steve. He passed and watched a lot of terrible things. It’s normal that now they might be more alive than they never were. But I’m sure you’ll be strong enough to help him out and be by his side on this difficult journey.” She said, trying to tranquilize him as she gently outstretched her palm in his direction and stroked his bare bicep in an affectionate caress.

Natasha’s velvet voice and somewhat appeasing words along with her sweet touch were like a pure relaxing pill for the man. And now standing there, still kind of numb from his long time sleeping, hearing her and seeing her so close to himself, made his whole interior get warmer and more in peace. Almost like if she could erase all of his ghosts and preoccupations in a mere second, just like that. For the first time in that day, the blond’s lips curled in a short but bright smile.

“Thanks, Nat. You don’t know how good it felt to hear that from you.”

Simultaneously as those same words, uttered by the man, slid into her ears, Natasha’s heart skipped a beat, not letting enter any sort of oxygen in her lungs as she remained paralyzed in the same spot she previously was, staring at the man with no sound being made by her part as her face continued the perfect act of not exposing out no kind of emotions. But the truth was more than that, and she couldn’t quite figure it out.

“I better get going.” She finally spoke, almost in a velvet low whisper as she gave some slow steps backward, away from his presence “Lunch is almost ready.”

“Wait.” He halted her movements once more, that instant not only with his mere single word but also by having him stepping into her personal space and catching her with long fingers involved around her wrist “We need to talk.”

“About what?” She asked, faintly startled at the sudden skin contact provided from the man’s persona, making the woman exchange her gaze from the connection of their fleshes and then raised it so her green hues could lock on the man’s sky blue ones.

“About what happened yesterday in the gym.”

Natasha’s orbs narrowed slightly, trying to analyze what his words meant and what were they supposed to talk about. Obviously, an almost-to-be-kiss was an important issue and indeed needed to have some sort of conversation around it, but was that the correct moment to talk about it? And what was there really to talk? Wasn’t it only a matter of hormones, and cravings needed to be fulfilled?

“Steve you sure you want to talk about it, right now? Can’t it wait?”

“No.” He firmly replied, not thinking twice and leaving the certain vibe that he was sure about his own answer “I spent the whole day thinking about it and, I almost didn’t see you nor had the opportunity to converse about it. And I’m not going to waste any more time.”

“Alright… Go ahead.” The redhead said now more calmly, upon taking a short inhalation of air, not bothering about his palm still holding her in place around her wrist and their frames, once more, dangerously close to each other.

“I want to… Apologize from my sudden behave. It was not a proper action and I didn’t want you to think I was taking advantage of you.”

“Oh…” Was the only sound escaping past the female’s plump cherry lips as her eyebrows furrowed above her emerald globes, somewhat not expecting such statement and not really fancying it – no matter if it was a case of hormones or more, she still hoped he had done it with full desire and assurance about it “So, you didn’t really want to kiss me.”

“No. No that’s not what I meant…”

“It’s fine, Steve.” Natasha interrupted his speech, flashing him a small side smile as she shook her head in a faint action “You don’t have to explain everything. I know I’m an attractive woman and you are a man after all. Such sudden and undesired urges are normal and…”

“Natasha, stop talking and listen to me!” He exclaimed, raising his tone of voice and losing the control of himself as he leaned even further and captured the woman by her shoulders, stilling her to stare deep into his eyes “I did want to kiss you back then! I’m not apologizing for doing something I didn’t want to, but from doing it without knowing if it was mutual from your part.”

The woman stared at the blond with furrowed eyebrows and orbs slightly wider, astonished at the sudden affirmation thrown from his person and at how firm and rampant he was behaving towards her.

“What made you think it wasn’t?” She queried, staring intensely into his eyes, trying to read him and still not letting him do the same with her own emotions.

“You also wanted it?” This time was Steve’s turn to get surprised by her sentence, but he wasn’t afraid to expose it out, as he looked deep into her with larger orbs, lips slightly parted and the grip on her shoulders easing up.

“Do you think I’d let you get that close if I didn’t?”

Silence landed upon them after the woman pronounced such revealing words towards the blond. None of them dared to talk for a good amount of time; they simply let themselves remain paralyzed to the floor, staring profoundly into each other’s eyes, still processing what was flourishing between them – even if they couldn’t quite figure out what was indeed happening within themselves.

Steve was now more certain of his feelings for the woman. He couldn’t really say if it was love because he also didn’t understand very well that part of the human being, due his lack of romantic experiences. He had reliance of everything he felt for Peggy, but those emotions seemed to be way long lost in the past, to let him fully understand the whole concept of loving someone again.

Whether if Natasha was also falling in love with the man, she had almost 100% sure it wasn’t the case. What she felt for him was nothing compared to what her heart hollered her every single time she spent a moment with Bucky. Yet, she also couldn’t deny it was no longer a matter of lust and sexual cravings towards Steve. It was another situation. A little bit more vivid. Maybe it was a crush? – What she really hoped not, because only the mere word seemed way too childish for her own likes. Maybe it was indeed something beyond that… Not love and that was for sure. But something more than the insane desire of sharing a bed with him, in the middle of sinful but oh so pleasing sensations.

“Do you still want it?” Rogers didn’t know where he did find the courage to speak out that query, but he did it firmly, without second thoughts or any hint of weakness.

Such question had hit Natasha hard in her interior, exploding in waves of warm passion, leaving her mind completely blurry with the desire to feel and taste the flavor of Steve’s mouth against her own.

No answer was given in a vocal mode from the spy’s part towards the man’s ask. Instead, she closed the gap between their frames, got herself higher on her tiptoes and in a blink of an eye, she cupped one of his cheeks with her petite palm whilst the other wrapped around his nape, bringing his face down closer to hers, as she leaned up with her own, and thereafter a clash of two pairs of needy lips could be found between the couple.

The super soldier quickly responded towards her actions, moving his own petals in rhythm with hers, whilst his hands switched routes and ended up landing on the woman’s slim waist, holding her close to his own torso, afraid of letting her go and break that precious moment finally occurring between them.

A flurry of flustered kisses was shared, and as the seconds went by, the intensity increased against their mouths, turning the event into a more scalding one. Lips were now more parted, allowing their silky and moistened tongues to found each other in a sensual battle, swirling them around each other, tasting the most luscious flavor they had the pleasure to savor in years.

Before they could even pay the slightest attention to it, Steve had already pinned Natasha against the wall next to the door of his private room, making the woman releases an enticing whimper at his dashing and so alluring action whilst this one captured a handful of blond locks, tugging them against her palm which turned out to be a delightful surprise, due the amazing sensation it provided him through every single cell of his skin.

All of those things being made by Rogers, just made her look at him with different eyes; in front of her was no longer the superhero everyone appreciated and admired so much; no longer the rightist man on earth; no longer the ally or friend she always had by her side, facing adventures and risks but always together. No. In front of her was a brand new side of Steve; the one she thought she would never witness – at least towards herself.

This new part of him was the most carnal being within him; the one who had natural but sinful desires and somewhat, he was not afraid to show it. She couldn’t precisely point out where and when he had learned how to be such good kisser as he was now – since her memory recalled a very different story from about three years ago – but she was glad about it… Or maybe scared.

The manner he moved his lips around hers so steady but with so much passion; his tongue exploring her insides, massaging her own slick muscle; gripping her waist so nicely, almost like if he wanted to reach her flesh and discard her blouse right there in the middle of the hall for his own selfish pleasure. All of that and even more was what indeed left Natasha afraid. Not because of the accurate meaning of that word, but because she feared that she might enjoy it so damn much, she could get addicted to him – or worse, allowing him to have his way deeper into her heart.

The seconds turned minutes and none of them seemed to worry about the exposition of their intimate event, in the middle of the corridor, where anyone could pass by and watch them so involved in their first (real) kiss. They both knew it could be a one-time thing, so why wasting the opportunity?

However, before they could prolong such magnificent event occurring between them, the door of Steve’s personal quarters suddenly got opened.

“Steve?” Bucky’s voice echoed into the couple’s ears, making them rush the separation of their bodies in an abrupt manner, leaving the redhead still placed against the wall whilst Steve could be almost found leaned on the other one on the other side of the hall.

Even if he hasn't watched the whole scene while on the process, the dark haired man still had caught them both in the act, and even if it wasn’t the case,  their swollen reddish lips, messy hairs, and heavy breaths were enough to sort out the puzzle.

“I’m… Sorry. I didn’t want to interrupt.” Bucky apologized, averting the two pair of eyes landing on him casually, as he raised his flesh hand and took it to the back of his head, scratching it and ruffling his dark chocolate locks of hair.

“You are not. I was just leaving, in fact.” Natasha said, adjusting her own breath, clothes, and hair before flashing the two men a somewhat serious gaze, with a little polite side smile before turning around and direct herself to out of the area “See you guys later.”

The two best friends didn’t share any sort of words for some instants; simply watching the redhead walking away of the hall and once her image disappeared into the elevator, both of them decided to make their own paths into the room once again.

“Is everything alright Buck?” The blond questioned the other male, upon noticing how quiet and the somewhat oddly manner he was behaving already inside of Steve’s private quarters.

“Yeah. I just didn’t see you when I woke up and I heard noises coming from outside and…” He hesitated on what he was about to say, shrouding his face with both of his palms, rubbing his visage in a pure act of frustration “Fuck! I should have known you were with her. I’m so, so sorry Steve.”

“Calm down, pal. It’s alright.” The super soldier tried to appease the other guy with a calmer tone of voice as he leaned closer to Barnes and smiling gently, the man landed one of his hands on top of the other’s shoulder, faintly shaking him “You couldn’t have known I was with her. I’m not mad at you.”

“But you should.” Bucky paused on his sentence once more, locking his crystal eyes on Rogers’ sky ones, regretting now more than ever he hadn’t been brave enough to tell his own best friend about the past between him and Natasha sooner enough to the point of now having a secret he knew he couldn’t reveal “I… I made you guys stop.” He lied about his argument of how the blond should be indeed mad at him, as he for a second avoided the other’s gaze.

“Maybe it was better like that. This was starting to take some dangerous routes in public.” Steve commented with a large smile blooming across his set of lips, as a sound of contentment left his insides, even though he felt kind embarrassed of how shameless and reckless they both got in the corridor.

“You mean you two could… ?” The Asset didn’t finish his sentence, not quite believing in what their conversation was leading to, making him stare at his best friend with narrowed orbs and head slightly canted to the side, trying to really analyze if the oh so pure and good (ex) Captain America was indeed referring to the ‘sex’ topic.

“I don’t know Buck.” The taller man shrouded his shoulders, giving a couple of steps backward as he started to indeed feel the burning wave of shame running through his veins “Maybe. Maybe not. You know I can’t quite tell.”

“Maybe!? Wow! Where’s the ‘I want to court a nice gal, taking her to romantic dates, marry her and then take her virtue away’ guy that I used to know?” Bucky lightly jested around, looking at his friend from head to toe in a funny manner, not really believing in what his ears were capturing.

“We are not in 1940 anymore, pal. This is 2017. Some things change.” The blond quietly laughed at his best friend’s remark, shaking his head in a light manner as he walked around in the room, preparing himself to take another shower – this time quicker – and dress some clothes so he could have lunch with the rest of the group.

“I know about that. But I’ve never expected to hear that from you!” Barnes commented again in a playful vibe but still in shock at what he had indeed heard, making him drop his weight over the edge of Steve’s mattress in a sitting position, as he watched the bloke walking around.

“Well, I guess you weren’t the only one changing, after all.” The soldier said again, still in an amused mood, grabbing a white towel and a pair of clean boxers to take to the bathroom “And besides… Even though I’d have loved the idea of being Natasha’s first bloke, I have to face the reality. She’s not a kid anymore. She is a grown woman; a mature, gorgeous and interesting woman. I’m quite sure she is more experienced in the whole theme than I am.”

James had to swallow that one in dry. Even if he couldn’t remember yet if he and Natasha really went all the way in their past together, he had an enormous feeling that such event indeed had occurred in their history. And even if it didn’t, he knew by now that she had some skills in seducing men and, well, giving them a good time with her only petite hand.

So yeah, he did believe she was more experienced in the whole sex matter than his best friend could be. Yet, it still didn’t stop the brand new emotion running through his veins.

“But you really are into this girl, aren’t you? Do you really fancy her or it’s just a physical passion?” Bucky asked suddenly, now with a more serious speech and emotionless facial traces, halting Steve’s movements towards his shower.

Such question came a bit out of nowhere, leaving Steve a bit startled which made him stop his tracks and turn around so he could face the dark haired man. It wasn’t a so strange query since they hadn’t yet had a really long and explanatory conversation about the woman and what the former Captain America felt for her. However, Barnes’ crystal blue eyes seemed to expose out something that was odd. It was like if his words had another meaning behind them and the blond couldn’t completely figure it out.

And he had a plausible reason to do. The ex-assassin, even if not quite understanding it himself, made such question not to know his best friend’s true and honest feelings for the Russian spy, but to know indeed whether she wasn’t going to get hurt in the future or deceived – if that was even possible due her strong and clever personality.

It wasn’t normal the sudden and brand new feeling of protection he was starting to have over her, but it was happening. He didn’t know the reason beyond it, but deep inside his subconscious the truth was clear as water: now that his memories started to appear in his mind along with the constant coexistence with the female (again), his hidden and somehow ‘sleeping’ feelings for her were starting to awake in his heart – after all, a love so profound and strong as the one they had in the past was not easy to erase.

“I’m still not quite sure, Buck...” Steve started his own explanation towards the previous ask thrown at his direction, but now slowly drawing a little but sincere and gentle smile to the other male “But I think I might be falling in love.”

And that was all Bucky needed to hear to have the full confirmation he desired for his own actions: Steve would never find out about the past between him and Natasha.


End file.
